Credits: 1 AIA LU | HSW

As academic institutions reimagine their missions for the 21st century, architecture is being asked to do more - to blur disciplinary boundaries, foster creative collaboration, and serve as civic infrastructure for learning, making, and performing. This session explores two recent projects in the Commonwealth that exemplify this shift: the Artis Center for Adaptive Innovation and Creativity at Radford University (designed collaboratively by Hord Coplan Macht and William Rawn) and the Costar Center for Arts and Innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University (designed collaboratively by William Rawn and Glavé & Holmes).

Both projects create highly flexible environments that unite arts, health, technology, and business disciplines under one roof, supporting emerging pedagogies through openness, transparency, and spatial adaptability. The session will explore how architecture can act as a catalyst for interdisciplinary exchange, activate campus edges, and reflect institutional identity. These buildings not only anticipate new ways of teaching and learning but also suggest how architecture can help shape the future of innovation across campus, community, and culture.