The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center

BNIM Architects

Recognitions: AIA Iowa 2021 Design Award, Impact Award 2022

Project Description

The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center is a new dedicated office and research space on Drake University campus for The Harkin Institute staff and fellows as well as a center for community engagement. Throughout the building, empathetic, human-purposed, and equitable design principles are implemented to ensure that the facility supports all building users’ experiences, from the building’s entrance to each unique space within. The Harkin Institute seeks to improve lives by giving policymakers access to high-quality information and engaging citizens as active participants of public policy. It promotes understanding of the issues to which former Senator Harkin devoted his career, including his historic legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act. The design team worked closely with The Harkin Institute to understand needs that were not being met in the built environment, posing a key question which guided the direction of the design process — “What barriers still exist today?” The answers that emerged from these important discussions, policy meetings, and research provided deeper understanding of how design must do better to elevate the experiences of all individuals. The design vision for the new facility aimed to set a new standard in inclusive design through providing generous space in path and ramp width; creating equitable experiences such as ‘meet in the round’ conference room configurations to provide opportunity for hearing impaired individuals to engage in conversation through undisrupted sightlines; implementing lighting strategies that create clear paths for individuals with low-vision or hearing; and establishing wellness rooms for individual empowerment.