Project Images
Palm Beach Atlantic University
Project Summary
Founded in 1968, Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBAU) is a successful, growing Christian university, located on an urban campus in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Prior to the project, the campus library consisted of an octagon-shaped building (which was originally a highly revered campus chapel and theater) connected to a three-story rectangular wing. However, the library was inadequate for students’ and faculty’s needs.
Hanson, serving as a consultant to Leo A Daly, assisted the university with its vision for the “library of the future.” The firm served as the associate architect and Engineer of Record, providing mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection engineering services.
Inspired by the campus’ stucco facades and Spanish Mediterranean-style architecture, Warren Library is a new four-story, 86,000-square-foot facility. This technologically advanced facility features 28 study rooms and houses approximately 350,000 volumes. The library’s interior was designed to encourage conversation and collaboration, offering an Information Commons area to address individual and collaborative learning needs. A central four-story atrium brings in natural light through a gable-form lineal skylight in the roof.
The concept design includes saving and renovating the 1933 octagon-shaped building and incorporating it into a 21st-century collaborative learning center as part of an additional project phase.