Kettering University has opened a $63 million campus facility with hopes that it will benefit the next generation of U.S. automotive talent.
The Learning Commons is a four-story, 105,000-square-foot multiuse building designed for collaboration across Kettering University‘s disciplines, including students benefiting from the school’s long history in educating automotive industry talent, said Kettering President Robert McMahan.
Kettering University was founded in Flint, Mich., as The School of Automobile Trades in 1919 and has turned out notable automotive leaders such as General Motors CEO Mary Barra. Operating under several names since, it was once called the General Motors Institute.
The commons, which opened last month, is designed for students and faculty to collaborate. There are no classrooms or offices in the building, McMahan said. Instead, the building features movable furniture, natural lighting, a rooftop garden and nods to its automotive background such as the BorgWarner Bistro, according to a release.
The building also features a 15,000-square-foot maker’s space with 3D printers, design soldering stations and other tools and machinery, the release said.
The space is meant to encourage teamwork across boundaries and domains.
“You want a room with a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, automotive engineer and industrial engineer, a marketer, salesperson [and] advertiser. You want them all in the same room,” McMahan said. “That’s how business gets done.”
Sometimes innovation happens at the coffee bar, rather than the space designated for it, McMahan said. The Learning Commons is supposed to simulate the hypothetical coffee bar, where students and staff who would not typically cross paths now have a chance to, he said.
“It’s a very fluid, very inspiring environment,” McMahan said.