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UM’s New Design Studio Wins National Award

April 2019

It is an elongated, curved slab of grey concrete shading walls of high-tech glass, with exposed duct work and shiny concrete floors inside – and it’s the darling of the design world. Readers of the international online journal World-Architects.com overwhelmingly voted UM’s Thomas P. Murphy Design Studio the 2018 Building of the Year. Designed by Miami’s Arquitectonica, and built and funded by homegrown Coastal Construction,
it was named for the dad of Coastal CEO Tom Murphy, Jr.

The structure, built on a former parking lot, is already fully operational as a shared workspace for UM architecture students and faculty. Among its high-tech features are the 18-foot glass walls that let in light but block heat.