Robert W. Plaster Manufacturing Center

• Project highlights: Robert W. Plaster Manufacturing Center

• Architecture firm:  Dake Wells Architecture
• Owner:  Ozarks Technical Community College
• Location:  Springfield, Mo.
• Category:  General
• Project site: Previously developed
• Building program type(s):  Education - college/university (campus-level)

On a prominent corner of Ozarks Technical Community College’s campus, the Robert W. Plaster Manufacturing Center is a state-of-the-art education facility and community resource that advances manufacturing by educating and training a new generation in clean manufacturing and fabrication. The project builds on the Springfield, Missouri, college’s reputation for academic and technological innovation and combats the notion that manufacturing is a dirty, dangerous, and financially unfulfilling world.

From the beginning, the college envisioned developing a center for advanced manufacturing that would have an immediate positive effect on the local economy, offering citizens and companies the opportunity to grow in a facility that is the first of its kind in the state. The center offers local manufacturers a dedicated place to train, test, and research without taking space from their facilities. Before its doors opened, companies looking to expand took note of the planned facility, considering the region for the first time. 

The architecture of the center, which sits on a former parking lot, responds to its programmatic elements and their orientation to the sun, community, and campus. Within the 117,000-square-foot facility, education spaces are arranged in a two-story classroom block oriented toward the north campus, while expansive high-bay labs along the south are visible to the broader community. The classroom stack is punctuated by three glass “stitches” that offer sorely needed gathering space for students and draw daylight deep into the interior.

Reflective of the rigor of advanced manufacturing, the center conveys cleanliness and precision through a silver metal skin that wraps the perimeter. It includes metal screens that shade the building interiors during the day but add to its luminescence at night. At the primary entrances, the metal skin is peeled back in a welcoming gesture that frames two outdoor gathering areas flanking the entrance lobby.

Throughout the center, large expanses of glass admit daylight and communicate the building’s public nature, enticing passersby to investigate what it has to offer. Upon entering the lobby, users have direct access to a training room, student gallery, and the High Bay lab, which overlooks the college’s neighborhood.

A skilled workforce can be the lifeblood of a community, and the center helps the college train and support the region’s talent pipeline. The center is equipped to serve multiple generations of learners, whether a teenager or an adult student seeking to advance in their career.