University of Hawaii, West Oahu

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University of Hawaii Campus scheduled for completion in spring 2010.

Official site: westoahu.hawaii.edu/newcampus/

Phase I of the campus includes six buildings all within the main campus area:

* Classroom
* Laboratory
* Maintenance
* Administration
* Student Services/Campus Center
* Library/Resource Center

Classroom

The classroom and laboratory buildings comprise 41,136 and 41,798 gross square feet, respectively, and will contain general classrooms, computer classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices and meeting areas. These two-story buildings are located to the south of the primary presence of major campus facilities framing the Great Lawn.

Maintenance

The maintenance building is located south of the future Library/Resource Center, in an area that functionally serves both the initial and future phases of the new UH West O‘ahu campus. The service building comprises 12,671 square feet and will house the campus security office and chiller plant.

The Great Lawn


The UH West O‘ahu campus is organized around a large open space within the “heart” of the campus. The Great Lawn, located west of Kalo‘i Gulch and bordered by campus buildings, comprises approximately 3.9 acres. Landscaping and site furnishings will be incorporated into the design to provide space for students to gather, socialize, eat, and study. In addition, commencement exercises will be held at the Great Lawn.

Administration

The two-story Administration building will contain the Chancellor’s Office, Vice Chancellor’s Office, Business Office, Human Resources, Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR) and the mailroom. This approximately 31,500 square-foot building is located in close proximity to the drop-off at the terminus and to parking. The building defines the north edge of the Great Lawn. Its orientation takes advantage of views to both the Great Lawn and the Wai‘anae Mountains. Together with the Student Services/Campus Center building, it creates a gateway from the main entry roadway, with access off of Farrington Highway, to the campus.

Student Services/Campus Center

This approximately 62,000 square-foot building will accommodate the Student Services office that contains the Admissions, Registration, Financial Aid and Career Services units. In addition, the building will be home to the Campus Center area that will include a food service area, a bookstore and meeting rooms. The two-story building is located in close proximity to the drop-off at the terminus of the main entry roadway and to parking located to its north. This L-shaped building borders the Great Lawn, and is conceived as a building footprint with two angular wings with a shaded, walk-through galleria at the ground floor, allowing easy movement from student parking and arrival areas to the northwest into the central campus area. Perimeter views from these two building wings are directed toward the Wai‘anae Mountains to the northwest and the ocean to the west/southwest. The primary building frontages create a welcoming enclosure and shaping of the Great Lawn formed on this northernmost monumental terrace platform on the campus, with a triangular paved plaza at the building entries.

Library/Resource Center

The Library/Resource Center comprises approximately 62,800 gross square feet within a two-story building. The Library/Resource Center defines the southern edge of the Great Lawn and its central location is characteristic of the Library/Resource Center’s fundamental symbolic and functional presence on the campus. The building is oriented with is primary building façade to the north, enhancing solar performance, capitalizing on views to the Wai‘anae Mountains, and allowing indirect natural light to penetrate into the building.

The Library/Resource Center includes the information commons, stack space, reading rooms, circulation desk, the main computer center for students, a digital media center for faculty and students, the Learning Assistance Center, small study rooms, information commons, the Information Technology Operations Center, and the Henry Ku‘ualoha Giugni Digital Archives, a restoration and storage facility including a unique catalog and archive designed to preserve and digitize the moving image history of Hawai‘i. In addition, the Library/Resource Center will be home to an approximately 100-foot high tower, planned to serve as a visual landmark and as an iconic symbol of the campus for the surrounding community.

Building Centers of Excellence

The UH West O‘ahu campus in Kapolei will be home to new academic Centers of Excellence including the:

* Center for Creative Media
* Center for Sustainability
* Center for Health Sciences
* Center for Teacher Education

These and other similar programs at the University will create new career pathways for students while fortifying Hawai‘i’s economy.

Center for Creative Media

The Center for Creative Media emphasizes narrative, or storytelling, theories, skills and applications across multiple platforms of digital media and within a context of cultural and aesthetic values. The programs are production-oriented. At the hub of the Center for Creative Media will be the Digital Media Production Facility, providing true global-standard student facilities to anchor the premiere media school of the Pacific Rim, including classrooms, faculty offices, computer labs, sound stages, post production facilities, set building and storage, and most importantly, collaborative space for students.

Center for Sustainability

The UH West O‘ahu Center for Sustainability will serve as the premier program of its kind in Hawai‘i integrating natural sciences with social sciences to create programs in sustainability, green technologies, policy and management. The new campus, with its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings and environmentally friendly architecture, low energy consumption buildings and many other environmentally sound features, will be the ideal home for the new Center for Sustainability, training leaders to improve the quality of our environment for the next generation.

Center for Health Sciences

The UH West O‘ahu Center for Health Sciences will equip students with the necessary health sciences education and training to meet the workforce needs and expanding demand for educated health care professionals. Existing programs at UH West O‘ahu, such as the baccalaureate in Health Care Administration, will be joined by other health care programs not currently available in Hawai‘i.

Center for Teacher Education

The UH West O‘ahu Center for Teacher Education prepares knowledgeable, skillful, responsive educators for a global society. Baccalaureate programs in early childhood, elementary, middle-level, and secondary education provide innovative teacher preparation in support of West O‘ahu communities. In its mission to fulfill workforce needs of Hawai‘i, the Center for Teacher Education serves as a magnet for not only pre-service but also in-service teachers seeking to contribute to the quality of teaching and learning in Hawai‘i.
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Coordinates:   21°21'19"N   158°3'22"W
This article was last modified 12 years ago