The McKinnon Center gives UNM’s Anderson School of Management a progressive new identity and creates a welcoming center to bring together students and faculty in both academic and social settings.  The first new dedicated building for the school in 48 years, the McKinnon Center adds much-needed classrooms, labs, and study spaces along with offices for advising and career services, faculty and school administration.

Located on a tight site on a distant side of campus across from a parking structure and a variety of non-descript, low-slung buildings, the McKinnon Center establishes a clear urban edge and prominent campus gateway. Taking advantage of the space created by removing a low-value building, the new structure transforms the campus precinct by forming a variety of landscaped spaces that encourage students to linger and interact. Despite the limitations of a modest budget, the McKinnon Center powerfully establishes ASM’s forward-looking posture, providing a multi-functional and enticing gathering place for the entire Albuquerque business community where none previously existed.

The building’s stucco exterior and sculpted form strongly relates to the campus’s pueblo-inspired vernacular, while simultaneously projecting a contemporary character. Designed with sensitivity to the intense desert sun, the deeply recessed windows and thermochromic glazing offer refuge from the heat while still admitting ample daylight. Custom-designed, weathered metal screens, inspired by the pattern-making crafts of the American Southwest, create textural contrast to the smooth stucco and give the Center a unique identity. At the building’s core, a two-story living room feels both sheltering and light-filled, with dynamic shadows from the striking entrance canopy traversing the space over the course of the day.

With a high-performance envelope, healthy materials, and low-energy systems, the LEED Gold-certified McKinnon Center positions the Anderson School for a broader mission of deep engagement with the business community, enhanced growth and stronger national identity, while also reinvigorating the UNM campus with inviting interior and exterior spaces specifically designed to fit this unique place.