The renovation to Welch Hall has transformed this critical facility, located at the heart of the UT Austin Campus, into an inviting, efficient and high-performing building for science and education. The renovation breathed new life into a large, aging complex of buildings, and today is again a flagship hub for learning and research for the College of Natural Sciences. Through this renovation, Welch Hall has re-energized the core campus area by redefining its relationship and engaging its surroundings on all four directions.
The adaptive re-use of this important facility is attracting world class faculty, staff and students to UT Austin. Updated infrastructure has rejuvenated Welch Hall for the next 30 years. The renovation capitalizes on Welch Hall’s central location on Speedway Mall by opening the building to the pedestrian walkway and providing focused social and study spaces for students. Research floors overlook the campus through a canopy of live oak trees.
The University of Texas at Austin
Welch Hall Renovation
Project Statistics
LOCATION
Austin, TX / United States
COMPLETED
2020
TOTAL SQUARE FOOTAGE
332,000 GSF
PROGRAM COMPONENTS
Chemistry, Molecular Biosciences, Biophysics, Theoretical Chemistry
Team
Leon W. Drachman
Principal-in-Charge
Sarah Lindenfeld
Project Manager
Barry Shiel
Architect
Hackerman Greenhouses
Jeffrey H. Gregorio
Principal-in-Charge
PROJECT EUI
The Welch Hall Renovation exceeded our expectations. The college’s need for modern, flexible research and teaching space, coupled with PAYETTE’s vision, transformed an old dingy building into a vibrant space that will serve thousands of students each day.
Dean Appling, Associate Dean, CNS
Breathing New Life into an Aging Facility
The renovated building provides modern and flexible teaching and research space within a venue designed for interdisciplinary work. This comprehensive renovation increased the building’s research capacity by 30%, and significantly improved its efficiency through sharing common resources, including core facilities and scientific instrumentation. In addition, the new design modernized the general-purpose classrooms, while providing space, furnishings and technology to support Texas Academic Transformation Initiatives. The new, dynamic student spaces connect the important research that is conducted in Welch Hall with the larger UT Austin community. On the research floors, the plan was re-conceived to maximize space utilization, connectivity, collaboration, openness and transparency. Natural light and visibility transformed an inefficient and tired space into a bright, flexible and inviting environment for research.
Norman Hackerman Building Greenhouse
This new rooftop plant and crop research facility consists of eight compartments with seven primarily used for crop research and one for teaching and display that can be converted to research in the future.
Photography (c) Andrea Calo
