Wisconsin State Journal — "A Student Center like None Other for Beloit College"
“Converting the powerhouse into a student center while retaining history was assigned to Studio Gang, an architectural firm in Chicago founded by Jeanne Gang. Her firm’s work includes high rises in Chicago, San Francisco and Paris, and music, art and cultural centers in New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Memphis and Taiwan. In 2019, the studio completed the design of the 2.2 million-square-foot O’Hare Global Terminal, scheduled for completion in 2028.
In 2018, Studio Gang’s design of the Beloit powerhouse received the top prize at the World Architecture Festival. The award was based on future projects that take on issues like climate change, energy saving and carbon emissions, water use, aging populations and health issues, reusable materials, smart cities, building technology, cultural identity, ethics and power and justice. The powerhouse project, which includes LEED certification and geothermal systems, also ‘reanimated a once tarnished river edge to a new center focused around community, health and wellness,’ Anke Meyer, one of the judges of the competition wrote. . . .
‘One of the miracles of this building is the design element that Studio Gang brought to it. It turned our thinking upside down in how the spaces in this building could be used,’ Bierman said. ‘It’s breathtaking to me. This thing is 100 times better than I ever conceived.'”
