A historically significant renovation was made to Mayo Memorial Auditorium, a 55 year old building at the heart of the Academic Health Center on the Minneapolis Campus. The renovation corrected many code deficiencies and satisfied fire and life safety requirements. The major mechanical and electrical building systems were replaced.
The interior of the building was completely renovated to support contemporary healthcare and research education, including state-of-the-art audio and visual capabilities, interactive broadcast capabilities, and individual student access to laptop computer based instruction and testing. Seating capacities for the lower level classrooms and the upper level auditorium spaces were reduced to accommodate accessibility code requirements, as well as folding tablet-arm chairs. The upper level main auditorium space was remodeled to accommodate seating for 486. The auditorium lobby was renovated to better provide for small group passive learning opportunities and function better for significant formal events. A new elevator, as well as, a new hallway ramp connection to the fourth floor level was added to provide handicap accessibility to the auditorium spaces and the adjacent building.
The two existing tiered floor classrooms below the main auditorium space have been completely reconfigured to hold 120 seats in each. These classrooms received new seating including fold-away, laptop computer sized work surfaces with full hard-wired power and data capabilities to each seat. These classrooms are also outfitted with distance learning capabilities. Wireless computer access is now available throughout all areas of the Mayo Auditorium.
The usable area of the building has been increased through refurbishing and conditioning the ground floor lobby space which was originally built as outdoor space and was only minimally enclosed. The exterior of the Mayo Auditorium building was also refurbished and stabilized to ensure structural integrity and aesthetic appearance. This work has returned the building to the position it once held as a premier teaching space and its historic state, allowing the University to pursue historic registration for the Mayo Auditorium. |
