In the latest episode of Side Notes, BWBR’s Education Practice Leader Greg Fenton joins us to take a closer look at the ever-evolving higher education landscape. In a quick conversation packed with meaningful insights, we explore how design can widen the horizons of learning and breathe new life into college campuses, bringing inventive solutions that address education’s greatest challenges.
Challenges Produce Possibilities
To Greg and the education team, challenges aren’t a downside—they’re opportunities to solve problems and innovate.
For institutions with abundant but aging building stock, BWBR transforms outdated facilities to meet modern needs—often a win-win for both sustainability goals and financial limitations. Whether it’s putting laboratories in a building that has never housed the sciences or adapting a space for today’s technology-infused learning modalities, Greg calls these “wonderful challenges,” and ones that BWBR excels at solving. “We can help them with utilization, using data they may or may not have, and then understanding that they can adapt these buildings for new uses,” he says, “and helping them, at least at a preliminary level, to understand how they may need to invest going forward.”
The race to attract and retain students is another major difficulty facing schools. “The number of students is down. We’ve all heard that in the news,” explains Greg. However, working closely with institutions to create eye-catching and functional spaces that help boost enrollment numbers, make the most of funds, and plan accordingly for the future is something that he loves about higher education design.
Spaces that Shape the Next Generation
“We as architects and interior designers all have a passion to impact lives,” says Greg. Working with educational environments provides the opportunity to do exactly that. These formative spaces are where incredible learning and development take place thanks to teachers and educational professionals who share their skills with the next generation.
“Being part of that story and being able to help those people succeed in sharing their knowledge and expertise and allowing them to teach in the highest capacity continues to be a passion,” he shares. “The spaces that architects and designers design can influence and make a positive impact on one’s life, and it’s never not rewarding to see a positive reaction or give someone the best opportunity to succeed and learn and grow.”
Because of the nature of education, Greg says that the camaraderie and energy on these projects is particularly special. “People are passionate—and passionate about what they do—and all work towards the same thing.”
Inspiration Fuels Innovation
In order to spark excitement in the next generation of professionals and leaders, designers must always seek fresh inspiration for educational spaces. “Curiosity is a great thing,” says Greg. “Never stop asking questions. Keep asking the what-ifs.”
He draws inspiration not only from his own experiences, but also from the many institutions he travels to in his work. With a lens of curiosity, Greg and the team think through ways to reimagine and improve upon the spaces they see, “and then bringing those stories back, sharing them with other clients, or people in the industry, or even facility directors and campus engineers.”
Beyond seeking inspiration from other learning environments, he also takes insights from the way people live, work, and play to infuse fresh perspectives into educational facilities. “I get inspired when I see others trying new things, or in seeing things that I didn’t know and learning from them,” says Greg.
It only makes sense that as Education Market Practice Leader, Greg is a lifelong learner who brings an approach of curiosity and innovation to each project—whether it’s reimagining a historic hall for the needs of today’s students or designing a new facility that will stand the test of time for future learners.
