PROJECT INFORMATION

The new Judy Genshaft Honors College is 6-story, 86,000 square foot building on the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida (USF). The construction of the $56,000,000 honors building was made possible by a generous $20 million donation from former USF President, Judy Genshaft and her husband Steven Greenbaum. This new campus building is home to UFS’s honors classes, as well as the school’s study abroad programs. It features suspended “learning lofts”, soundproof recording studios, a professional kitchen for cooking classes, a safe, a library, and outdoor spaces for events and speakers. The design for the honors college put an emphasis on natural lighting and was heavily influenced by feedback from students who wanted to see more spaces for mingling, meeting new people, exploring creative outlets, and comfortable places to study with friends.

PROJECT SCOPE

For this project, MG McGrath created a custom unitized system with glass & glazing and metal panels in the same unitized system with 8 different panel style/size variations. The unitized façade was made up of several metal and glass systems including 14,000 square feet of Centria Versawall insulated metal panels (IMP) in an 805 Charcoal Silver paint finish and nearly 15,000 square feet of YKK’s YCW 750 SSG Glazed Curtain Wall system with  Silver framing finish. Also a part of the unitized panels was the over 28,000 square feet of solid and perforated plate panels in PPG Duranar’s Mojave Cactus metallic color finish. This unique finish’s color-shifting properties give off different hues of purple and green as the angle of the light changes.