EDUCATION, WORKPLACE

EDUCATION

MAGNET

Cuyahoga Community College
Metro Campus Center

Sited in Hough, a historically underserved Cleveland neighborhood, the new MAGNET headquarters repurposes Margaret Ireland Elementary into a modern manufacturing anchor meant to uplift individuals and small businesses in northeast Ohio.
—Always By Design

Informed by widespread input, the reimagined Campus Center is now a catalyst for campus and community. It is a beacon, with a glow seen from blocks away. It welcomes all.
—Always By Design

Sited in Hough, a historically underserved Cleveland neighborhood, the new MAGNET headquarters repurposes Margaret Ireland Elementary into a modern manufacturing anchor meant to uplift individuals and small businesses in northeast Ohio. It engages the public as a workforce development center, educational facility, and community center.

Upon entry visitors experience two-story, glass-framed manufacturing floors created through strategic demolition of the 1960s school building. From above, the double-height space allows birds-eye views of active machinery and high-tech robotics. This central space celebrates manufacturing from the inside-out. It invites youth, students, teachers, trainees, and inventors to pioneer from within and piques curiosity for walkers-by. In addition to an expansive manufacturing floor, the headquarters features flexible co-working spaces, a community event center, a designated wing for student groups, and a redesigned STEM-themed playground to provide resources to support and strengthen the community as well as the workforce of the future.

The interior respectfully blends contemporary design and industrial elements to amplify the school building’s history and character. Original hardwood gymnasium floors were upcycled into furniture pieces by the design firm’s own master wood-craftsman – marrying the old with the new.

Other interior elements original to the school, such as locker doors and 1960s school bells, were upcycled into furniture pieces and wall art to help to tell the unique story of the building and merge the past with the present. Vibrant color and thoughtful environmental graphics calls to the building’s legacy as a learning-centric space, while also marking a refreshed identity for the nonprofit.