In early 2006, the University of Rochester began preparing for a significant renovation of its Rush Rhees Library that will occur between May and September 2007. The project will transform 21,000 square feet of library staff space into a 24/7 student collaborative learning center that would begin to integrate the services and resources of the Library and Information Technology Services. Based on the success of Rochester's Undergraduate Research Project, the process of designing the renovated space is driven by student input in the form of design charettes, and furniture selection is being informed by mini-experiments. With the help of Herman Miller, a "Future Pull" technique was used to establish guiding principles or themes for the space and develop consensus around them. Repeatedly these different techniques have prevented us from making incorrect assumptions about the needs of our students - mistakes that would have been extremely costly to reverse. This presentation will review these different methodologies, provide examples of the types of insights they provided, and show where the design has thus far taken us.
Handout (MS Word)
