Embedded in the heart of downtown Tacoma, WA is the University of Washington’s (UW) Tacoma branch campus. It is a truly urban campus with century-old warehouse and commercial buildings that have been restored and repurposed into a central library, tech labs, and classrooms with street level retail and eateries. The once desolate, even hostile city center is now energized by students walking to and from class or UW staff taking a break at a café.
The buildings are inextricably a part of the urban fabric of Tacoma, which adds to the unique character of the campus. However, it also means that the UW buildings can be indistinguishable from nearby non-campus buildings. Students and visitors experience difficulty finding classrooms and discerning where the university grounds begin. Because of that, an identity and wayfinding program that visually defines the UW campus is critical.
Studio SC is designing a program that is directly inspired by the city’s industrial history. A system of modern, thickset, aluminum pylons with punched-through “W” lettering will be installed throughout the campus and will support rectangular information panels in Husky purple and gold. Building identification signage will utilize a series of pedestrian-scaled pylons and work with the rest of the signage to establish a University branded aesthetic on campus.
By creating an attractive, user-friendly environment that is easy to navigate, the UW is demonstrating their attentiveness to the needs of its students as well as the surrounding community. The signage program compliments the architecture and establishes a campus identity that is refreshingly “Tacoma” but still says, “Go Dawgs”.
Published on October 02 2014