School of Public Health & Health Sciences at UMass Amherst

The SPHHS Hub aims to create a learning and gathering space for students in the School for Public Health and Health Sciences. The new building will house classrooms, dedicated student services, and seminar workshop rooms. The first-floor atrium featuring a glazed façade opens onto the plaza, creating an indoor/outdoor space for large events. A wide walkway from a major campus node leads to the plaza, inviting students to gather in the benched seating area shaded by a grove of honey locusts. The site grading creates a level front lawn, a new green large enough for an event tent for campus gatherings. In support of the LEED goals for the project, the plaza features permeable pavers, and two bio retention basins are included in the plan – the larger of which features concrete weir walls and a tiered progression of basins, illuminating the process of stormwater filtration using native plants. The site design also preserves two important and large existing campus trees.