Academic

Academic buildings and campuses are special places that not only serve as places to learn, socialize and perform, but they also become the backdrop for memories that last a lifetime. Whether designing or planning an independent school, university, community college or public school, we approach academic projects with great reverence for each institution's unique needs and goals.

Design of the building takes its inspiration from the surrounding campus style, with neo-Georgian brick detailing, TCU blond masonry, simple masses and the promotion of human-scale architecture. One of the main focuses of the building design was to reorient and expand the northwest entrance to the building to create a welcoming space that promotes interaction with the larger campus.

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Bennett Benner Pettit worked in conjunction with Bing Thom Architects to design a series of buildings and interior spaces at Tarrant County College (TCC) that are oriented to take advantage of the dramatic vistas along the historic Fort Worth bluff. The central plazas and exterior courtyards meander gently between the buildings, descending down the riverfront, providing students and residents...

The Westlake Academy Complex is a forward-thinking mixed-use facility that provides the space for a top-quality, international baccalaureate curriculum educational facility. The project was designed to LEED environmental standards and employs natural daylight to light the offices, classrooms and gymnasium. Rainwater is harvested and stored on-site for use in irrigation. Natural stone, exposed...

The Fischer Dining Pavilion, completed in 2008, is the prototype to set design standards for future buildings on the Fort Worth Country Day campus and is intended to be the school’s crown jewel. The building is a dining hall space with multiple purposes, including banquets, assemblies and dances. The roof is sloped to create an opportunity for a large clerestory on the north facade while...

The Graduate Program of Nurse Anesthesia is one of the flagship programs at Texas Wesleyan University. The building program includes simulation labs, classrooms, offices and a seminar room used for distance learning.

The building is located on the edge of the campus, abutting a residential neighborhood. Care was taken to break down the scale of the building as well as provide a...

The Jack and Jo Willa Morton Fitness Center at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth features rooms for cardio, weights and aerobics as well as locker rooms, offices and conference rooms. The new facility is not only a place for fitness conditioning, but also a gathering place for social interaction and general student wellness activities. Its location along the quadrangle provides...

The purpose of this new facility is to provide a meeting place/student center on campus that will also function as the lobby for the school’s theater/assembly hall. The design addresses the connection with the existing theater and includes a sloped roof with a large clerestory to take advantage of the northern light. Similar to the Dining Pavilion, the building includes extensive use of glass...

The new 75,000-square-foot facility features the 1,100-seat Margot and Bill Winspear Performance Hall, the 400-seat Lyric Theater with accompanying opera and instrument Rehearsal rooms, a scene room and a costume shop. Each major component of the building celebrates a unique form, creating a playful composition of forms.

The concert hall is a wood room, with wood structural framing and...

The university commissioned an 800-car garage, for which the City of Fort Worth and the Texas Fat Stock Show (an annual rodeo and livestock exhibit) contributed construction funds — on the condition that the garage be available for evening and weekend use and be readily accessible to the Will Rogers Memorial Center and Cultural District. Bennett Benner Pettit ultimately revised the campus...

The new student center for the Texas A&M University-Commerce campus replaced an existing outdated facility, which will allow for greatly enhanced programs and activities for the students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community throughout the day and evening. This facility at the center of campus has become a destination point and a student hub of activity, creating a new synergy for...

This new arts facility for Fort Worth Country Day was designed to accommodate the school’s growing art education department. The school decided to renovate and expand a former campus cafeteria into art studios and classrooms. The project was inspired by the use of natural light, the need to form strong connections with the campus and a desire to have art education on display.

This 56,000-square-foot building showcases a new 233-seat flexible theater, which is asymmetrical with a flexible side that allows it to be used in varied, three-dimensional arrangements. The new 325-seat PepsiCo Recital Hall provides an intimate setting for solo and small ensemble performances, and features a unique “shell within a shell” construction to provide optimal acoustics and...

Opened in 1911, Jarvis Hall is the oldest building on TCU’s Fort Worth campus. Until recently, Jarvis Hall served as a women’s dormitory. Due to recent growth at TCU and changes in student housing, Bennett Benner Pettit was asked to renovate Jarvis Hall to incorporate career services, student services, university ministries, music classrooms and offices.

The design provides for the...

Built in 2001, the Nenetta Burton Carter Building was a new construction project built on Texas Wesleyan’s Fort Worth campus. The building houses a 20-person computer classroom and a multi-purpose classroom in addition to offices for English Department faculty offices.

Located on Texas Wesleyan’s historic campus quadrangle, the Ed and Rae Schollmaier Science and Technology Center features computer labs, classrooms, a seminar room and faculty offices. A student lounge with exposed steel beams and wood decking provides a comfortable place to study, with views of the quadrangle through floor-to-ceiling glass.

Each learning area is contained in a...

Due to recent growth at Fort Worth Country Day, a small college preparatory school in southwest Fort Worth, Bennett Benner Pettit was asked to renovate the original administration building to incorporate eight office spaces, a conference room, restrooms and storage. The design calls for the creation of a new entrance into the campus by walking straight through the entrance of the...