The goal of the project is not only to upgrade the technical functioning of the building, but also to bring a physical sense of community to the College of Engineering.

The existing facility, constructed as a series of additions over many years, is fragmented and disorienting, and lacks any significant public social space. The renovation and addition provides an opportunity to remedy these circumstances by reorganizing the primary circulation and public spaces to unite the various parts of the building into a coherent whole.

Two program elements, the Learning Center and the Student Commons, are seen as the public hearts of the project with the addition organized around them. The Student Commons is the building's "living room," intended to give the College a new social focal point. Its atrium location physically and symbolically joins together the otherwise separate floors of the five-story building. The Learning Center represents the academic core of the College. In contrast to both the library and the laboratory environments, this space is dedicated to teamwork areas and is envisioned as a vital, energized hub for project-related student interchange.

The new laboratories are organized in a five-story block extending from the north wing of the existing building to the south edge of the site. The corridor serving these laboratories forms the new primary circulation spine connecting the addition to all wings of the existing building.

The laboratory addition is zoned with dry laboratories in the north portion of the block, and wet laboratories in the south. Teaching labs, research labs, and student common areas are intermixed on each floor to increase interaction between students, and between faculty and students.