How can we collaboratively create a gathering space for Washington State University students that celebrates the region’s history and diversity?
With intention and dedication. We do what we do because we want to see our community celebrated and celebrating.
Washington State University chose Absher’s design-build team to construct the Elson S. Floyd Cultural Center, a building celebrating education and diversity on campus. With our design partners at GGLO, we introduced a campus centerpiece featuring four cultural knowledge rooms, an art gallery, a demonstration kitchen and a meditation area. Inspired by indigenous philosophies of interdependence and reverence, each knowledge room embraces a different cultural heritage – Native American, Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander and African American. The structure as a whole is heavily influenced by the native Palouse Prairie landscape, with undulating surfaces and an enveloping roof that pays homage to the grasslands it was built upon.
