Pittsburgh, PA (July 11, 2018) – Renowned architecture firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ) has announced their design for Carnegie Mellon University’s TCS Hall. Designed for collaborative research and maker-based learning, the building will be utilized by faculty, graduate and undergraduate students across multiple disciplines, and underscore university-corporate partnerships.

Funded in part by a gift from Tata Consultancy Services, a global IT and business solutions company, TCS Hall will serve as a gateway  for those entering the CMU campus from Forbes Avenue. The 90,000-square-foot building will create a new ‘Student Collaboration Porch’ and house laboratories for computer science and mechanical engineering, a drone high-bay, flexible makerspace, an outdoor robot yard and offices for CMU faculty and the TCS Collaboration Center. Scheduled for completion in winter of 2020, TCS Hall will serve as a keystone for development in the north of Forbes district.

The project is led by Design Principal Gregory Mottola, FAIA, and Principal in Charge Kent Suhrbier, AIA. Mottola and Suhrbier are alumni of CMU’s School of Architecture and have contributed to many BCJ projects, both nationally and in Pittsburgh.

“Collaboration and making are essential to what we do as architects, so we’re always interested in designing buildings that allow for this type of creative exploration and prototyping,” said Mottola. “We look forward to seeing the students at work in these spaces, and the results of their design thinking.”

The two buildings add to the firm’s growing list of work for CMU, which includes Stever House, the nation’s first LEED-certified residence hall; the award-winning Software Engineering Institute; and the celebrated Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace, known as a ‘living laboratory’ for the study of workplace technology, which opened in 1994 and remains an international center for the advancement of sustainable building technologies today.

Other notable BCJ projects throughout the Pittsburgh region include the Heinz History Center, Braskem (formerly Aristech) Headquarters, both High Meadow and the Barn at Fallingwater, and the recently Living Building-certified Frick Environmental Center.

“We’re excited to build upon our firm’s legacy with CMU and the region,” said Suhrbier. “Especially during this exciting time in Pittsburgh, as the city reinvents itself as a leader in technology and maker-based industry.”