UT Rio Grande Valley IEAB

This multipurpose educational building houses classrooms, engineering teaching labs, computer labs, a seminar room for doctoral students and student meeting rooms for informal gatherings and collaboration. The three-story building is consistent with the campus’ master plan, inspired by the architecture of Louis Khan. The architectural brick, colorful metal panel cladding and details, thick brick exterior walls and shading devices enhance the modern aesthetic of the campus. Datum Rios designed the superstructure for this facility which included a 36-ft wide, 140-ft long cable-suspended sombrilla structure. Using advanced 3-D analysis, coupled with our experience with tensile structures, our engineers proposed geometry, materials and connections to help take this feature from architectural concept to efficient and practical reality.