Carnegie Mellon University

Project Description

The recently completed ANSYS Hall is a four story, 36 thousand square foot mixed-use building that incorporates a maker assembly space with immediate access to the outdoor Maker Courtyard, student collaboration space, classrooms and offices. The courtyard is a direct extension from the first floor High Bay Maker Space of the building that will provide full-size manufacturing capabilities and the ability to showcase large scale prototypes such as student constructed solar-powered boats and race cars.  ANSYS, the simulation software company, has a dedicated office suite for their employees.  The new building complements the surrounding historical Henry Hornbostel buildings by taking ques from the massing, rhythm and brick detailing.   ANSYS Hall is a sustainable building with the goal of meeting LEED Gold.

ANSYS Hall Courtyard at Night

ANSYS Hall is geographically located in the heart of the College of Engineering. The building connects the adjacent Graduate Maker Wing in Hamerschlag Hall and Scott Hall Nanofab lab completing the maker eco-system. The building's location further increases the connectivity between the College of Engineering and the University, both physically and programmatically.

ANSYS Hall rendering outside view

The College of Engineering (COE) has placed a significant curricular focus on providing maker resources to Undergraduate and Graduate students across the college to encourage making at the Nano, Micro and Macro scale. As a world class college of engineering, COE is forming a comprehensive, interdisciplinary and integrated set of making resources that can be utilized by faculty, Graduate and Undergraduate students in order to manufacture their ideas in the real world.

ANSYS Hall Computer and Maker Lab

The Maker Ecosystem for Engineers is the COE's vision for creating this set of integrated resources that will help faculty and students create and develop new ideas/concepts/products across many different disciplines, especially mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, materials sciences engineering and biomedical engineering as well as crossing disciplines into robotics and computer science. The Maker Ecosystem for Engineers will embrace three main parts, but will allow for additional components to be added in the future. Scott Hall's Nanofab lab was the first launch of the CIT's Maker Ecosystem for Engineers and allows for making at the Nano scale.  Hamerschlag Hall's multi-million dollar renovation to create a Maker Wing, which allows for shared making at the component level and advanced manufacturing labs was the second piece of the Maker Ecosystem. The addition of ANSYS Hall completes the system by adding Simulation, Large Scale Assembly and Finishing.

ANSYS Hall  Maker Space

Team Members

Campus Design and Facility Development worked in conjunction with the following organizations to complete the project:

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Pittsburgh, PA - Architect
Mosites Construction Company, Pittsburgh, PA - Construction Manager