Saiful Bouquet Structural Engineers provided full engineering design services for University of Southern California’s new $23.8 million Academy. The Academy combines three programs (Arts, Business, and Technology) into one cohesive curriculum stimulating a unique and collaborative environment for its undergraduate students. The 3-story, 40,000 sq. ft. academy is designed to house workspace for students, guests, visitors and lecturers as well as instruction classrooms and makerspaces for technology projects from 3D printers and a multimedia lab to a podcast studio.
Jimmy Iovine, an Apple Music executive, and Andre Young, the co-founder of Beats by Dre, created the Academy at USC in 2013. The academy first set up on the 4th floor of University’s Campus Center, but the Academy quickly outgrew the space as the Arts, Technology and Business programs thrived.
The project is on a triangular shaped site and is attached to a one-story workshop space. A roof terrace will be located over the workshop area at the same elevation as the academic building’s second floor. The building system is designed with a concrete over metal deck floor system. The seismic bracing system consists of steel moment resisting frames with proprietary sideplate connections and buckling restrained braced frames.
