The Northwest Passage

As I mentioned in one of my blogs last month, one of the big projects during the summer is redoing the northwest entrance. We want the northwest entrance to be one entrance with doors into each of the two buildings. It is necessary to make the building complex seamless. We do not want there to be two different entrances. By “one entrance” we mean one walkway, one set of steps leading up to the building complex, one roof covering, and one concrete slab across the entire breadth of the entrance. 

Current NW entrance under construction

This entrance is critical to the success of our new building. When we were doing the programming for the building, we measured traffic in and out of every entrance to gain a better understanding of how students used the Eccles building, and to project how students might use the new building complex. We discovered that 75 percent of the students entering the Eccles building entered through the northwest entrance. Because most of the business classes will shift to the new classrooms in the new Huntsman Hall, and because the northwest entrance will be the main entrance to those classrooms, we project that about 85 percent of the student traffic in and out of the business building complex will be through the northwest entrance. This entrance will be well-used! 

NW entrance rendeer

In order to make the entrance more user-friendly, we have made some big changes. First, we more than doubled the number of doors, thereby increasing the capacity of the entrance. There should be no more waiting in lines to get in or out of the business building. Second, we added a snow melt system to the stairs and to the landing area at the top of the stairs. We also added some walk-off mats in the vestibule coming into Huntsman Hall. There should be no more puddling of snow melt inside the halls of the business building. Third, we created an open atrium-like space coming into the building complex. This space will be used for banners, screens with announcements, an informational kiosk, and so on. Students will no longer enter into the building complex and immediately be thrust into the classroom hallways. And fourth, and most importantly, the northwest entrance will also serve as one of the main passageways between the two buildings.

Students will benefit tremendously from the increased usefulness and capacity of the new northwest passage.

Ken Snyder