USF hires acclaimed architect to design Lakeland building

The University of South Florida has hired an internationally acclaimed Spanish architect to design the first building on its USF Polytechnic campus.

Santiago Calatrava, known for his dramatic and sweeping designs, spoke to a crowd in Lakeland by speaker phone on Tuesday, saying he felt a connection to Florida through his Spanish heritage.

From his office in Zurich, Switzerland, he assured the listeners that he planned to create a structure that would preserve the natural beauty of the campus site.

USF President Judy Genshaft described the announcement of Calatrava's hiring as one of the most significant in the history of USF.

A Calatrava design "will put our institution and our region on the map," USF Polytechnic Chief Executive Officer Marshall Goodman said. "Nobody transforms a landscape the way he does."

Calatrava's designs include the Quadracci Pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, Wis., the Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece, and a building known as the Twisting Torso in Malmo, Sweden.

For USF he will design a 100,000-square-foot science and technology building. It will set the standard for all the structures that will eventually occupy 187 acres at Interstate 4 and Polk Parkway. Two other parcels of wetlands and reclaimed phosphate land, totaling 368 acres, will also be part of the campus.

The design team for the new campus includes Alfonso Architects of Tampa. The firm's Albert Alfonso said that Calatrava's building will raise the bar for architecture statewide. "It sends a statement that architecture is important," he said, noting that Lakeland is already known for the many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings on the Florida Southern College campus.

The new building will cost $46.5 million, with Calatrava and the other architects to receive about $6 million of that. In addition to designing the science and technology building, he will update the master plan for the entire campus.

Since it was founded 11 years ago, USF Polytechnic has shared space with Polk State College in Lakeland. Its focus is hands-on learning and research in applied arts and sciences, such as information technology and engineering.

When complete, the new campus will have the space to expand its current student body of 4,229 to 16,000.

Calatrava's building will draw people to the USF Polytechnic campus, said David Robinson, president of DSM Technology Consultants in Lakeland and a member of the architect selection committee.

"We're going to have the opportunity to see the transformation a single building can create," he said.