Engineering
January 22, 2024
The $40 Million Shiley-Marcos Center for Design & Innovation Opens as a Collaborative Space to Spur Creativity and Hands-On Education.
The arrival of spring semester on the University of Portland (UP) campus ushered in a new era of hands-on learning and discovery: The Shiley-Marcos Center for Design & Innovation is now open for creative thinkers to collaborate, experiment and bring new inventions to life.
Situated on The Bluff overlooking the western portion of the Willamette River, the $40 million, four-story structure contains 43,800 square feet of creative educational space. The building features classrooms and maker spaces to spark the imagination of UP students from all majors — engineering, business, nursing, education and the liberal arts — and will serve as the new home base for undergraduates enrolled in the University’s Innovation Minor program.
The Center promotes discovery and cross-disciplinary collaboration with spaces and resources for ideation, prototyping, testing, digital design and technology, virtual and augmented reality, fabrication and machining. Three local industry partners – Daimler Trucks North America, Hyster-Yale, and Tektronix – will occupy partner suites to conduct lab experiments, with UP students participating and receiving on-campus professional training.
Esteemed philanthropist Darlene Marcos Shiley, renowned for her support of education, medical research and the arts, initiated funding for the center with a $10.4 million lead gift. Mrs. Shiley’s steadfast commitment to innovation honors her late husband, UP alumnus Donald P. Shiley (Class of ’51), whose historic inventions include creating the first artificial tilting disc heart valve, and whose legacy is omnipresent on campus as namesake on the Donald P. Shiley School of Engineering.
“The launch of our new Shiley-Marcos Center for Design & Innovation is a truly historic moment in the life of our University,” said UP President Robert D. Kelly, Ph.D. “Here on The Bluff, we’re committed to providing transformational, hands-on education that blends art and science, faith and reason, and service and leadership. This new building will allow us to elevate this commitment to new heights. We are deeply grateful for the vision and leadership of Donald and Darlene Shiley, and to all who made this extraordinary new building possible.”
“I can’t think of anything more positive than taking our young people, giving them all the tools they need, and letting them run with it. That’s what Donald did,” Mrs. Shiley said. “He ran with it. This space will allow them to ask the same question Donald always asked, ‘What if . . . ?”
Other key facts about the Shiley-Marcos Center:
Building Features — The Shiley-Marcos Center for Design & Innovation aims to be a leading learning environment for present and future generations at UP. Each of the building’s four levels house invention, discovery and testing spaces, with the hallmarks comprising the Propulsion and Combustion lab, shop spaces for fabrication and manufacturing of materials including electronics, machines, woodworking, welding and art making, as well as digital media lab space. Open, collaborative meeting spaces, study lounges, and faculty and staff offices round out the offerings.
Sustainability — The project reused the concrete foundation, retaining walls and concrete structural elements of an existing building, which contributes not only to fewer materials being used for construction but lowers the project’s embodied carbon. The University is confident the Shiley-Marcos Center for Design & Innovation will receive LEED Gold certification, housing the first-ever solar array on the UP campus to power as much as 24% of the building’s energy use. Cross-laminated timber formed the structure as well as inside ceiling, and the expelled gases from the test labs will be ventilated and ultimately repurposed for radiant building heating. Expansive windows optimize daylight to curtail energy use by lessening artificial light needs.
Opsis Architecture are the architects of record for the new structure and Skanska USA, Inc. provided general construction management services. An architectural image of the Shiley-Marcos Center for Design & Innovation can be found here: Shiley Marcos Center for Design and Innovation.
University of Portland
5000 N. Willamette Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon 97203-5798
503.943.8000
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