WACO, TX — In the new, sleek, Paul L.Foster business and innovation campus at Baylor University, Won-Door FireGuard™ doors play an important yet inconspicuous role.
The Won-Door FireGuard™ accordion fire doors provide critical protection and egress in the case of fire or emergency while meeting all code requirements.
They encourage the use of stairs and allow for open connection between all four floors of the new 275,000 square campus for business and innovation housing Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business — finished in July of 2015.
Adam Bush, an architect with Overland Partners, (the design and prime architecture firm with the project) said the Won-Door FireGuard™ doors allow for efficient, open connection and circulation around the central atrium which is a central design feature of the project.
The atrium functions like a town center, connecting multiple programming components like faculty offices, classrooms, and conference spaces and meeting rooms along with department suites with faculty offices. The flow of students across the space keeps ideas flowing. Likewise, an auditorium and conference center connected to the atrium not only provide a resource for campus development but a valuable touch point between students, lecturers, potential recruiters and alumni.
Won-Door FireGuard™ doors, which remain in shallow storage pockets during normal business hours, allow for that obstruction-free flow without disruption through the building.
“I was excited to be a part of this project and work with Overland Partners again. We had 26 doors total in the building, most of which were used to keep the stairs open. Overland Partners is a firm that truly understands how and where to use Won-Door!
Angele Burton, District Manager
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution with more than 16,000 students from the United States and more than 80 countries.
With programs that are consistently ranked among the top for business scholars, Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business needed a building that telegraphed the fact that the university is educating leaders for the 21st century.
The Foster building creates a modern environment of community as it honors Baylor’s heritage, values and traditions.
While Baylor’s neo-Georgian structures bear witness to the school’s history the business school — designed by Overland Partners of San Antonio, Texas — stands ready to build for the future alongside the past with rich tradition feeding world-class innovation.
Overland Partners envisioned a modern, light-filled, innovative, building core composed of glass and wood wrapped in an exterior that features red brick and a stone base reflective of the traditional historical campus architecture.
Won-Door FireGuard™ doors played perfectly into that vision.
