Project Description
The 178,000 sf Technology Education Center (TEC) at the College of DuPage brings together a diverse set of programs and educational spaces, including laboratory, classroom and office areas, to support the College’s technology-based career training courses. The facility recognizes the duality of teaching at TEC with distinct architectural vocabularies for the shops and general teaching spaces, weaving the program together into a facility that expresses the balance between the instruction and hands-on experience. Designed to be used as a teaching tool, the building’s architectural expression reveals structural and MEP systems to students studying applications for those trades. Contrasting exterior materials visually articulate the rich functional mix of interior spaces. For example, large, colored precast concrete panels define the lab spaces and a more transparent curtain wall system defines the classroom and office spaces. The LEED Silver Certified TEC is intended to support a broad sustainable and educational agenda, promoting environmental consciousness through the synthesis of technological expertise and design principles.”