Student Activities Center, Indiana University, Purdue University, Indianapolis

Facilities for Student Activity and Gathering have been an integral part of the American University since the beginning of the twentieth century. The Activity Center (traditionally, the Student Union) has evolved from an organization ets., Oxford and Cambridge, to a multipurpose facility that provides for recretional needs as well as a common point of social activity for the student, facalty, and community. Today, the Activity Center must recognize the needs of the evolving University Campus and Student/Consumer which include commuter facilities, continuing education, and service as well as providing for the traditional need for relaxation, recreation, and forum.This thesis project, a Student Activ-Center for Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis (actual planning phases to begin in the near future) has been programmed and designed with the commitment towards recognizing and providing for these needs.In accomplishing this goal it was necessary to understand the IUPUI campus and it's context. The majority of the students at IUPUI are seeking professional degrees (although enrollment of undergraduates is steadily increasing), commute to school, and many of these students work and attend school simultaneously. Therefore, the Student Activities Center must act as a 'Home-Base' for students arriving and leaving campus. It must provide varied dining services, administrative services, and lounge and commuter facilities.In the context of the Indianapolis Community, IUPUI is one of the largest concentrations of educational facilities as well as potential cultural amenities. In fact, IUPUI is one of the largest urban campuses in the United States and is still growing at a rapid rate. The Student Activities Center should become a focus for this concentration of activity in which people can come together; it must provide for demonstration, exhibition, theatrical production, and sdualinteraction.Finally, this facility must accommodate this diversity of functions and simultaneously respond to the planning criteria of a real and growing urban university campus. It must allow for spontanaeity of activity outside of the classroom and coexist and enhance within the context of the campus.The Student Activity Center is a building which must find a comfortable fit within it's context and yet, in it's own formal language, respond to the diversity and vitality of the functions of which it is composed. It is in the spirit of the Student Union and the diversity of the Multi-Purpose Facility that this thesis project was conceived, planned, and developed.College of Architecture and PlanningThesis (B. Arch.