Connected on two levels by spacious circulation corridors, the complex provides convenient access to library resources, classrooms, lecture halls, administration suites, and faculty offices within one integrated facility. The four-story library wing doubles the size of the former library, provides carrel seating for 530 students, and accommodates 348,000 print volumes within both open and high-density shelving systems. Major program elements include a 28-seat computer lab, eight group study rooms equipped with televisions and VCRs, two audio visual rooms, a rare books room, a faculty research complex, a 1,400-sf microfilm room, and administrative offices.

The Academic Building is an L-shaped configuration occupying four-levels. Program elements include Moot Courtroom; a 300-seat auditorium divisible into two separate 150-seat lecture halls; five classrooms; the Career Services Center and Career Resources Library; the Public Interest Center; 14 faculty offices; two conference rooms; administrative offices; a student lounge; and space for more than 40 student organizations. Faculty areas are dispersed on all four levels to support the Law School's academic philosophy that learning at its best is a student-faculty partnership.

The design responds to changes in the law school itself (a larger and more diverse student body and faculty), and to the evolution of legal education marked by expanded curriculums, new teaching methods, and sophisticated research technologies. The Library's computer networking capabilities include power and data computer hookups at every reading room table, study carrel, window, and lounge seat; and extensive training and tech support via the Lexis/Nexis Learning Center and the Westlaw Learning Center.

Classrooms within the Academic Building are designed to facilitate innovative law school teaching methods. Sophisticated audio-visual technology and computer drops at every seat give students instant access to library resources and Web-based legal tools. The planning process--a collaborative effort between the design team and Law School faculty, administration and student body representatives--involved an assessment of existing campus facilities, the determination of projected space needs program requirements to the year 2010, and a comparative evaluation of facilities at several other leading law schools.