HED and CBLH Design created a world class design for Cleveland State University’s Washkewicz College of Engineering Addition located in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Washkewicz College of Engineering addition project expanded the original Fenn Hall to create a world class facility that supports an engaged engineering education, graduating ready-to-go Engineers, prepared to solve real world engineering challenges. The expansion facilitates these goals with state-of-the-art engineering facilities, including a multi-story makerspace that forms the intellectual “hub” of both the building and the campus community – attracting students from the engineering, fine arts, and business disciplines to build, refine and test new products. The facility includes laboratory spaces for Chemical/Biomedical Engineering, Civil/Environmental Engineering, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Engineering Technology, and Mechanical Engineering. It also includes classrooms, collaborative learning spaces, a makerspace open to the community, and faculty offices.

Approximately 7,000 SF of space has been programmed for a paradigm shift in education with an increased focus on web-based learning. The new, flexible classrooms are designed for easy adaptation to new technology and pedagogy, and range from 500 to 2,000 SF, and are “flip-able”, allowing them to be changed from lecture to group discussion during use for individuals or groups.

Specialty classrooms include: Simulation + Computational Labs, Research Labs, Research and Innovation Lab, and Simulation and Computational Labs with flexible space for interactive teaching which are designed to evolve with time. Washkewicz also contains a Learning Incubator Makerspace for Undergraduate Students: a cluster of laboratories where students interact across departments and across classes.

The new Learning Incubator provides an interdisciplinary, hands-on education beyond the classroom. In addition to taking the required fundamental engineering lab courses and working on design projects that span the four years of study, students will have the ability to work on their own innovations in the Incubator. The Incubator will provide integrated project management, prototyping and experimentation spaces with an emphasis on experiential learning and collaborative team-building.

Designer: HED
Architect of Record: CBLH Design
Contractor: Gilbane Building Company
Photography: BThomasHart Photography