When the new Engineering Building opened up, it was perfect.
Correction: nearly perfect. Despite its coveted study rooms and spectacular views of Provo, it had a flaw - on the fourth floor, stark white walls made the labs look more suited for a twentieth-century hospital than a modern center for learning. When we interviewed a group of students from the IMMERSE Program, they agreed that the blank walls needed an upgrade.
Seems like an easy fix, right? Wrong. It took a year for changes to finally take place.
First, students and designers experimented with vinyl graphic designs and paint colors, and once they decided what they wanted, they had to work through months of red tape. Due to budget restrictions, the team postponed the vinyl graphics and opted to just paint the walls for the time being. They ran their plans past campus-level interior designers, who reviewed the chosen colors to ensure it matched the approved palate of both the university and the Engineering Building.
Painting the walls came next. Because BYU only uses their own paint shop for campus projects, the team had to work with the paint shop’s slammed schedule while also ensuring no students entered the labs during the process. It seemed impossible to coordinate until COVID-19 came to the rescue and locked down the EB. This week, the paint shop finally had a chance to give the labs their much-needed upgrade.
When students return to campus (hopefully) in the fall, they will find refreshing pops of color on the walls of their labs. The digital systems lab has adopted a blue hue, while the analog lab boasts a shade of orange. Good-bye to the old, and in with the new!