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The Calvin and Tina Tyler Hall at Morgan State University—a 5-story, 141,000 sq ft student services center that brings natural daylight all the way to the ground floor.
How to Daylight a 5-Story Atrium: The Morgan State University Story
How do you drive natural light down through a five-story building with massive floor plates—without leaving the crucial lower-level offices in the dark? This was the challenge facing Teeple Architects and GWWO Architects when designing the Calvin and Tina Tyler Hall at Morgan State University.
As one of the largest post-secondary education providers in Maryland, Morgan State University needed an updated student services center. But the university was clear in their intent: this wouldn’t be just another administrative building. They wanted an “inviting and engaging space” that would contribute to the overall wellbeing of their students, faculty, and staff. Morgan State had a progressive people-oriented worldview, and the architects were there with a creative vision to make it all come together.
The 5-Story Challenge
“This building has big floor plates, and it was important to provide access to natural daylight to improve workplace wellness,” says Stephen Teeple, Founding Principal of Teeple Architects. With many departments located on the bottom two floors, the risk was creating a dark, gloomy environment for the people who needed it most—the staff serving students every day.
The solution? Teeple Architects designed the space with a clerestory skylight topping a five-storey atrium, to capture daylight and distribute it throughout the building. But not just any skylight would work. They needed a daylighting system that could diffuse light uniformly and drive it down deep into the atrium—not just dump it on the top floor and leave the lower levels dark.
Why Solera® Was the Right Choice
Both Teeple Architects and partner firm GWWO Architects had successfully used Solera® on previous projects, and they knew the clerestory skylight design was an ideal application for Solera® engineered daylight. “Solera was the right product because of the owner’s energy and daylighting goals which included LEED Gold,” says Teeple. The curvature and light colors in the space help to deepen and reflect the impact of natural daylight captured by Solera®.
A Building Designed for People
The 141,000 square foot, five-storey hall uses a unique curvature in its shape to accentuate the distinct features of this space, including the “wings” of the building that serve the university’s administrative needs. The building includes offices for university administration, financial services, human resources, and registration, as well as a central atrium and lounge.
This wasn’t just about aesthetics. The daylight strategy was integral to the building’s mission: creating a space where students, faculty, and staff would want to spend time. “It has everything students need to start their schooling and plays a huge role in deepening their engagement into their education,” says Teeple.
The Results: Performance + Recognition
By the Numbers
Square Feet
Stories
Certified
Investment
The LEED Gold Certified Calvin & Tina Tyler Hall cost $69 million to build and is named after alumnus Calvin Tyler and his wife Tina, who gifted the school with $20 million—the largest single sum ever donated to an historically black college or university. The building’s success inspired transformational philanthropy.
Award-Winning Design
The Calvin and Tina Tyler Hall has been widely recognized for its exceptional design on both local and national levels.
Further Reading & Media