Lassonde Studios

A breakthrough new paradigm for student entrepreneurship

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Client
University of Utah
Location
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Size
160,000 square feet
Status
Completed 2016

Seeking to accelerate and expand its impact, the University of Utah's Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, a nationally recognized hub for student innovation, turned to CannonDesign and our Yazdani Studio to create a game-changing facility that could better connect students to each other, to bold ideas and to exciting new futures in local and global entrepreneurship.

The resulting first-of-its-kind Lassonde Studios stacks 400 student residences atop a 20,000-square-foot innovation hangar, and stems from a highly collaborative design process that challenged assumptions about student housing, learning and entrepreneurship. The project establishes a new typology for entrepreneurial education, connecting students from all disciplines to technology, tools, prototype labs and mentors who can help them develop their ideas.

The building is recognized as a true trailblazer in architecture for higher education, having been profiled by the New York Times, EdSurge, Architectural Digest, Business Insider, Fast Company, Bloomberg and more.

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Lassonde Studios is centrally located near the heart of the University of Utah campus. The site was selected from four possible locations for its potential to become a dynamic, unifying space for the campus.

A process of prototyping

Creating truly original learning spaces like Lassonde Studios requires an original design process. Therefore, designing Lassonde Studios required more than simply uniting learning spaces with traditional college housing. Recognizing this from the outset, the design team encouraged the university to not simply launch a typical programming effort, but rather engage in extensive prototyping to surface completely new ideas for the building.

An intense design exploration, led by our Yazdani Studio, involved university leadership, students, student housing, business school representatives, local business community, and members of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, to imagine and create this entirely new type of educational facility, rethinking how living, learning, and making should be organized to empower entrepreneurship.

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In describing the building and its culture to EdSurge, Lassonde Institute Exec. Director Troy D’Ambrosio said, “On one end there is a shop with a saw and a 3-D printer. On the other side there is a cafe. In the middle, there’s a baby grand piano. Every now and then someone will sit down and play beautiful music with people standing around.
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The first floor of Lassonde Studios houses Neeleman Hangar, a 20,000 sf innovation space for events, teaming, building prototypes, launching companies and socializing.
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The first floor of Lassonde Studios houses Neeleman Hangar, a 20,000 sf innovation space for events, teaming, building prototypes, launching companies and socializing.

Testimonials

  • You don’t have to sign up for any specific class, you don’t have to pay any fees, you don’t have to join any program. Your first point of engagement is just to walk in the building.

    We wanted to make it as open and porous as we possibly could to encourage discovery and innovation 24/7. Our curriculum is entirely focused on startups and creation of businesses. Our students are not reading case studies. They are the case study.

    Troy D'Ambrosio Executive Director, Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute
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Student lounge areas are centrally located on each of the housing floors to spur collaboration for students even when they're not on the ground floor. The areas are amenity-rich and offer stunning vies of the surrounding campus and mountains.
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Teaming spaces fill the innovation hangar and living spaces, with 3-D printers, laser cutters, lounge space, vending machines filled with tools, and prototype rooms abundantly available.
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Teaming spaces fill the innovation hangar and living spaces, with 3-D printers, laser cutters, lounge space, vending machines filled with tools, and prototype rooms abundantly available.
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Teaming spaces fill the innovation hangar and living spaces, with 3-D printers, laser cutters, lounge space, vending machines filled with tools, and prototype rooms abundantly available.

Accelerating Entrepreneurial Innovation

5x

Since the opening of Lassonde Studios, the University of Utah has quintupled the number of student-led startups on campus.

107 Majors

Students from across 107 different majors and 39 countries have lived at Lassonde Studios since its opening. The multi-disciplinary culture of Lassonde Studios is intentional and helps accelerate ingenuity.

$1 Million+

The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute awarded more than $1 million in scholarships and cash funding across 421 startup teams in 2021 alone.

4,600+

More than 4,600 college students engaged in Lassonde Studios programming in 2021.

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The building sits at the base of the Waswatch Mountains in Utah and programs in the building often reflect the adventure and outdoor industry made possible by Utah's topography.
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The building is designed on a grid system to be remarkably nimble. The university can evolve the innovation hangar and living spaces as student needs and pedagogy change over the years ahead.
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The building is designed on a grid system to be remarkably nimble. The university can evolve the innovation hangar and living spaces as student needs and pedagogy change over the years ahead.
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The building is designed on a grid system to be remarkably nimble. The university can evolve the innovation hangar and living spaces as student needs and pedagogy change over the years ahead.

Testimonials

  • While there is a lot of research on new modes of learning, the exact link between entrepreneurship and students’ living spaces had not been tested. So, we decided to create a new typology for what a live-work space could be.

    Mehrdad Yazdani Design Principal and Executive Director of our Yazdani Studio