Carolyn Pope Edwards College of Education and Human Sciences

Mabel Lee Hall was originally programmed by Sinclair Hille Architects as a renovation project. In March 2018, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved a strategic move to shift the Mabel Lee project to a replacement building.  Sinclair Hille teamed with Sasaki from Watertown, Massachusetts to develop a revised program statement. Due to the restricted nature of the existing site, the new structure is comparable in footprint to the existing facility with a similar east-west dimension of 93-feet and a marginally smaller length (340-feet) in the north-south direction.

The replacement building for the College of Education and Human Sciences consists of a four-story structure with floors varying in approximate size from 23,500 gross square-feet (GSF) to 30,000 GSF each. The total building area is approximately 120,000 GSF and is connected on the south to the Teachers College Hall building on levels one and two. The new Mabel Lee Hall has flexibility to meet the future needs of the College of Education and Human Sciences programs, while bringing 21st-century learning methods to the forefront. The Schematic Design concepts for the building included the fundamental assumptions formed during the previous Program Verification phase. The Schematic Design incorporates:

• Program specific, state of the art classrooms
• Dedicated space for interdisciplinary research
• Space for interactive learning, collaboration, conferences, and other events
• Strategic placement of offices, conferencing areas, and student support services to enhance communication and collaboration among faculty and students

Primary program spaces include 10 classrooms; a large 390 seat lecture hall; five class labs; 99 faculty and professional/administrative staff offices; and 56 graduate assistant workstations. Of the current 70,005 net assignable square-feet (NASF), 76% is dedicated to classrooms, research space and offices. However, another critically important aspect of the project is the intentional integration of collaboration spaces for faculty, staff and students.

Another important component of the project is the robust and seamless integration of technology throughout the building. The new building will utilize the most current technologies for distance learning and collaboration, and the infrastructure will be designed with bandwidth to accommodate current and future technologies. Additionally, a podcast studio and virtual reality space were added to the program during the schematic design phase.