Campus innovation fuels active learning at Bowling Green State University

College students today learn and consume media in much different ways than past generations. To keep pace with students’ evolving learning behaviors, Bowling Green State University (BGSU) embarked on a $300 million master plan to deliver next-generation teaching and learning spaces throughout a revitalized campus.

The goal? New and renovated spaces are designed to support active learning styles and demonstrate BGSU’s passion for enriching the overall student experience.

In the academic-focused phase of the ambitious long-term campus innovation initiative, BGSU is renovating, constructing, demolishing or significantly upgrading more than a dozen buildings across campus. The university enlisted JLL’s support as master plan program manager to keep the plan on track while efficiently managing costs and maximizing satisfaction for students and faculty alike.

With the goal of fostering innovation, in fall 2016 BGSU opened the renovated Kuhlin Center, home to the School of Media and Communication. It includes production and broadcast studios, as well as a convergence lab for students to collaborate across media platforms.

Across campus, Moseley Hall features modern, flexible labs within a 100-year-old masonry structure. The renovation equips first- and second-year students with state-of-the-art biology and chemistry labs to address the State of Ohio undergraduate requirements for STEM courses.

The historic Hanna Hall is undergoing renovations and an addition to become the Maurer Center, home to BGSU’s College of Business Administration. The new facility will build on a culture of engagement and innovation. BGSU aims to enrich the student and faculty experience with cutting-edge innovation labs, active learning classrooms, collaboration spaces and a makerspace.

The campus innovation doesn’t just start at the classroom door. A revitalized University Hall offers an immersive new admissions space to welcome prospective students to BGSU. The neoclassical building has long represented the traditional heart of the university, but the outdated space was underutilized. The modern renovation preserves its architectural integrity, while providing a new focal point for admissions, student support services and learning. Beyond collocating student support functions, the building also features new active learning classrooms as part of BGSU’s transformation of its learning spaces.

Concurrently, as part of the Academic Master Plan, BGSU embarked on the ambitious goals of upgrading all teaching spaces to active learning, adjusting their classroom inventory to better align room capacities with updated curriculum needs and increasing overall utilization. Total classroom count fell by almost 20 percent. Today 80 percent of remaining classrooms are active learning, with plans in place to address remaining teaching spaces over the next few summers.

These academic-focused improvements build on the accomplishments of the student services phase of the plan completed in 2011. In that phase, JLL assisted BGSU with the addition of more than 1,300 new beds in student resident halls and two new standalone dining centers. These projects helped BGSU achieve increased enrollment and supported financial goals by eliminating more than $2 million in budget overages on the construction of the dining centers. Amid all this construction and renovation, BGSU invested significant funds to modernize infrastructure and razed numerous buildings to eliminate antiquated structures and millions of dollars in deferred maintenance costs.

BGSU added the Wolfe Center for the performing arts, and the Stroh Center for basketball and other events as well. Additionally, BGSU demolished all existing sorority and fraternity buildings and created a new Greek Village near the heart of campus.

Together, the new spaces strengthen the campus community, providing spaces that inspire students to live out the BGSU motto: Belong. Stand Out. Go Far. And BGSU is another step ahead in the growing competition to attract the best students and faculty.