Today’s college and university students are looking beyond traditional classroom settings to find connectedness and collaboration within the learning environment. That is why recruiting, and retention was a top priority when D’Youville’s President, Lorrie A. Clemo Ph.D. hired Brian McNamara as Design and Construction Manager for the university.
McNamara’s charge was to curate unique environments that would enhance every aspect of the student, staff, administrator, and faculty experience. He noticed that the campus had “many tired spots that hadn’t been renovated over the years.” And with a multitude of colleges and universities nearby, the administration wanted to create a competitive advantage by offering better and more flexible collaborative learning spaces.
"We have so much competition," explains McNamara, "You can travel twenty-five miles in any direction and there are fifteen different institutions. At D'Youville, we work hard to ensure our small private university, on the west side of Buffalo, leaves a lasting impression that cannot be found in any other part of New York."
That’s why the independent institution, founded in 1908, began designing award-winning facilities, housed with cutting-edge technology, to help grow the already thriving, urban campus of 2,500+ students.
"A lot of colleges and universities are required to stay within certain parameters, but when I stepped into my role five years ago, I was given a blank canvas to roll with."
"I keep giving Allsteel and W.B. Mason challenges and they continue to deliver enriched environments where people feel like they're home—like they belong."
Brian McNamara, Design & Construction Manager, D’Youville University
McNamara partnered with W.B. Mason and Allsteel to build out administrative neighborhoods, classrooms, collaborative spaces, shared offices, and inspiring cafe spaces. They expanded the floorplate within each facility to give everyone on campus more choice in how they work, interact, and live. McNamara focused on creating spaces where students could learn and live well.
Since the renovation, Dr. Clemo has seen marked improvements: “We’ve seen an uptick in almost 8% in student retention—which is pretty significant. Employees are also much happier. We’re doing far less searches for new employees as a result of these very comfortable environments that we’ve created.”
From the start, McNamara gravitated to Allsteel's expanded portfolio of partnership brands to bring his innovative design ideas to fruition. He thinks of the furniture with D’Youville as a vessel that brings people together.
"Our facilities empower both students and faculty to choose specific work settings that best suit their productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness," said McNamara. "We approached the design like we would a house and created space within space using aesthetically pleasing and highly flexible furniture and architectural product solutions."
The newfound freedom on D'Youville's campus has positively influenced the university's culture: "Now, everyone on campus has a laptop or tablet and can freely move across the floorplate—or across the street, to a totally different department."
The D’Youville team has relied on the strong partnerships formed with Allsteel and W.B. Mason to accomplish their goal of attracting and engaging all the university’s stakeholders, from students to faculty. And McNamara has enjoyed the process from start to finish, “It has been a fantastic experience working with Allsteel and Allsteel’s partner brands. (They) have really given us a lot of choice, just like we want to provide choice to our end-users.”
Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to the foundation of the university. So when it came time to partner, D'Youville needed to find an organization that had similar core values: "It's a big responsibility to ensure everyone has the same opportunities across all our facilities, and D'Youville couldn't have accomplished that without partners who are equally as passionate about inclusivity," said McNamara, "I keep giving Allsteel and W.B. Mason challenges and they continue to deliver enriched environments where people feel like they're home—like they belong."
Dr. Clemo believes that this change was not only important for their students and faculty, but also has an impact on the future of design for higher-ed: “Renovating our university was probably one of the most important things we could have done. We are setting a new standard for universities.”
Construction at D'Youville continues, providing continued opportunities to build flexible learning spaces. The university recently acquired several large buildings with the intention to build out multiple large projects in the upcoming year.