UVU computer building is campus motherboard
OREM — The Computer and Technology building at Utah Valley University is the mother of all buildings on campus; or at least the motherboard.
It’s probably fair to say that most of the students on campus and certainly the general public know little about the building, according to James L. Michaelis, vice president of facilities and planning. The 163,047-square-foot building was finished in 2002 and stands out from the others on campus.
“It’s kind of like art work,” Michaelis said.
Michaelis isn’t referring to the cool panoramic views it has, even though it sits higher than any of the other buildings on campus. It’s not even the glass elevators and concrete mezzanines that look more like you’re in a high-end mall or upscale hotel that make it so special. Nor is it the large corner study nooks that have tables with electrical and computer hook-ups built in, or the 150-seat terraced auditorium with computer hook-ups at every seat.
Charlie Sparrow, a sophomore from Preston, Idaho, is attending UVU for the first time. He is taking a digital media class on the seventh floor of the building to help his own small Internet marketing company. When asked if he liked the building he said, “I love the open feel, the mezzanines, the exposed elevators and the resources.” But when Michaelis took him over to the railing and had him look down to the main floor he got quiet, and then excited.
“I’ve never notice that before, it’s designed like a circuit board. That’s really cool,” Sparrow said.
Classmate Angel Lindsey, of El Paso, Texas, is a senior in criminal justice. He said it took him three years to discover the uniqueness of where he’d been studying.
“I had another class up here last fall,” Lindsey said. “I looked over one day and said, ‘Wait a minute, it’s a computer chip.’ “
Michaelis said the idea came from the firm that designed the building, EFT Architects. “The floor was designed to look like a computer. The architect thought it would be nice to have it be part of the design.”
According to Michaelis, they laid slate tiles down first and then cut lines in them. “Then they embedded them with stainless steel to look like wiring.”
The lines all meet up, like circuitry to a main microchip, where there is a vented part of the air ducting and filtration system. Silver “chip pins” are placed around the main chip and are used as benches and connect to the lines running in the floor. A mural around the outside of the auditorium is a collage of various circuitry and computer chips.
“This building is spectacular,” Michaelis said. The whole concept with steel and lime green paint, glass and slate all work together to make the building a real piece of architectural art, and a point of interest to those who want to climb to the seventh floor to see it.
Payson resident Andrew Jones is a junior at UVU and a former Marine who recently returned from a second deployment in Iraq. He said the computer building and the university status of the school are two of the things that kept him from going to the University of Utah.
“It’s super cool, like a computer chip,” Jones said. “But you have to have classes on the top floor to get it.”
According to Michaelis, the computer building is also the only building on campus with a curved roof. “As you look at our campus it’s all the same,” he said. “We are just starting to deviate. The new library has glass and aluminum trim.”
Michaelis is in charge of more than 50 buildings at UVU and says he is looking forward to the new buildings that are forthcoming, particularly the new science building.
