The large balcony (pictured left) on the third level overlooks Logan Canyon, connecting students and faculty to the beauty surrounding the Utah State University campus. The Gardner Building required stellar coordination between design and construction teams to deliver its unique exterior of metal paneling, glazing, and masonry elements (right, both images courtesy USU).

Choosing Mass Timber 

Coordination was critical in design, too, with MHTN suggesting a mass timber build—a first for USU and Utah's public universities.

Mass timber use in commercial design and construction is growing, well, like a tree. Woodworks Innovation Network has tracked 2,598 mass timber projects in progress or built nationwide as of September 2025. Baltic Pointe in Draper is one such project—five stories of cross-laminated timber columns and beams—and signaled the arrival of mass timber to Utah's commercial scene.

But what would the material look like in an institutional setting? One more constrained by budgetary demands? 

"Architects brought us that idea—we had never heard of it," said Caliendo of bringing mass timber to USU's flagship campus. "But we listened."

He credited Ryan Wallace, MHTN Principal and the firm's Director of Planning & Urban Design, for playing the role of educator and tour guide, taking Dean Anderson and others to see the aforementioned Baltic Pointe before flying out to Seattle to tour Founder's Hall at the University of Washington.

Darah Jakab, MHTN Associate Principal, said that mass timber's unique look and feel required full buy-in from end users and facility maintenance to pursue, especially as USU's first experience.

"They have to love it," she said. "And they did."

Executing the Hybrid Design

USU chose a hybrid design, with mass timber accounting for 40% of the building in front-facing and gathering spaces. The remaining 60% would be a steel structure for a differentiated experience for the project team and those who would eventually use it.

Burke said MHTN's willingness to include Jacobsen early in the design phase fostered a collaborative environment for owner, architect, and general contractor.

Early visioning sessions, conversations during schematic design, and consistent site visits ensured the project stayed true to design, feasibility, and budget. The MHTN team said the project required the most renderings that they had ever done. 

For their part, Burke said construction teams spent six weeks modeling the hybrid structure, crediting steel trade partner D&D Welding and mass timber consultants at TimberLab for ensuring both materials would meet their respective tolerances for a successful structure. 

Burke said D&D Welding's efforts to tie in their steel scope to the mass timber components of the build made them standout performers on the job, especially preparing the steel learning stair to receive its timber finishes.

"[D&D Welding was] great to work with and quick to figure out good solutions," he said. One solution was to bring the learning stair's supporting steel structure through the courtyard-facing storefront in pieces instead of fully assembled, erect it inside the nearly completed building, and install wood cladding on and around the stair feature. Burke said D&D Welding's efforts, combined with precision millwork from Clients Design, ensured the beautiful timber elements and a grand entrance into the Gardner Building.   

Naarah Kristensen, MHTN Project Architect, said the hybrid approach allowed the design team to eliminate any utilities that weren't necessary per code and life safety. Plans involved running infrastructure along specific corridors outside of the mass timber and creating "designed" areas where the electrical features could run in the slab and then punch through the wood below. She credited Salmon Electric as a solid collaborator, laying out the pathways and mockups and following the designers' vision to keep timber front and center.

"Of all the timber buildings I've been to, I've never seen a ceiling as clean," she said, praising the efforts of the entire project team for pulling off such a stunning feat. She explained how the design team performed extensive upfront modeling with their MEP consultants and worked with USU facilities personnel to achieve a "next level" design layout, ensuring Jacobsen and their trade partners could construct the building per the design intent. Specifications and drawings carried extra layout plans and requirements for shops and mockups before cutting into timber. "The construction team did an excellent job meeting this requirement."

Exceptional craftsmanship resulted in an interior that provides an immediate warmth upon arrival. The magnificent wood features—White Oak-covered learning stair and Douglas Fir mass timber ceilings and columns—are daylit by west-facing windows to frame the two floors of timber in all their biophilic beauty.

Staying True to Place

The climb to the second floor takes students and faculty to a resplendent view of "Dare Mighty Things," a five-panel art piece from Utah artist Abigale Palmer that depicts nearby Mount Logan. The art's colors—sky and grey sea blue, salmon pink, deep pine green—are present in additional artwork from Palmer and throughout the building.

Julie Braam, MHTN Senior Interior Designer, said, "Infusing the building with color was a departure from many of USU's buildings, but they were open to bringing in a lot of colors inspired by Logan Canyon and Cache Valley."

Caliendo was effusive in his praise of the communication from interior designers to readily share color swatches and fabric samples with Palmer, allowing her to create pieces that stun in their cohesiveness with both building and location. 

Jakab said that colors, mass timber, and art combined to bring character and identity to the building and the five programs housed within it. "Not only is it biophilic, it gives you the feeling of hiking up Logan Canyon with the light filtering through the tree canopy." 

Tales Brito, MHTN Project Architect, spoke about the strategy behind their window design to create the dappled-light effect, a critical design element given the site's challenging solar orientation from the building's elongated north-south axis.

"The massing of the building and the size of the floorplate reinforces the idea that we want as much daylight coming into this building as possible," said Brito, mentioning how he and MHTN teammates conducted light studies and worked hand in hand with USU to thread the needle and ensure programming could maximize daylighting benefits and capture the breathtaking views out to campus and stunning Cache Valley vistas. The design team called for trellises and solar shading on the south side and off-pattern vertical windows on the west side to let the sun work its magic while minimizing the harsh heat gain of active daylight.

Jacobsen Superintendent Chad Osborne matched the thoughtful design with a willingness to combine the unique window pattern—an equally unique pattern of differently sized metal panels—and masonry at the ground level to create an exterior that "rhymed" with Huntsman Hall.

"I don't think they could have designed a more difficult exterior," Burke laughed. "And it's magnificent. It required so much from our subcontractors and our superintendent, but those challenges are what make this work fun."

“Of all the timber buildings I’ve been to, I’ve never seen a ceiling as clean,” said Naarah Kristensen, MHTN Project Architect. She credited Salmon Electric as a solid collaborator that laid out the pathways and mockups for the electrical systems, following the designers’ vision and featuring the mass timber in its fullest on both the first (pictured right) and second floors (pictured left, both images courtesy Kyle Aiken Photography).

New(est) Home for the Huntsman School

Windows, views, mass timber, and paintings—all are great—but what about the student experience? 

Braam said the message the MHTN team heard loud and clear was two-fold: First, the Gardner Building needed to be "a place for doing" that could match the energy of business school students. Second, a place for students to "see and be seen."

Design achieved the first mission with aplomb, as each mass timber and color element joined a plethora of spaces and an array of furniture supplied by CCG for solo students and collaborative cohorts. Enclosed study nooks, open spaces, conference rooms, and gathering spaces vary across the Gardner Building’s three floors, with equally varied furniture—high top tables, couches, lounge chairs, and more—providing students with the canvas to work their scholastic magic. Curvilinear forms in the walls, floors, and ceilings meander and add visual intrigue, aided and abetted by color splashes that hearken to the natural surroundings.

Caliendo spoke highly of how design-oriented faculty offices hug the building exterior, encasing student areas like a cocoon. Interior office windows bring visual accessibility and allow mentors to open their doors and spill out into the learning environment. Some "offices" in that cocoon are private study rooms for students to use for job interviews, video calls, or head-down sprints to finish their next project.

"These porous spaces facilitate a lot of different types of learning," said Jakab. Perhaps, more importantly, "This building gives them a wellness factor for students to flourish, knowing that they have a home here."

The constraints Caliendo remembered from years ago are a relic of the past. Even with a confluence of five programs, each has a dedicated, differentiated home in the Gardner Building.

The "see and be seen" element came to life during the tour. Two students in the Huntsman School's Analytic Solutions Center program, Ryan and Owen, excitedly spoke about their ongoing projects. Ryan was working on a software solution that would allow residents in his home country of Rwanda to instantly access the country's prepaid electrical grid system from a smartphone. Owen showed off his AI-optimized system for project management and efficiency, which he hopes to fine-tune and distribute to others as they seek to build on their own ideas.

We're sure to see these and more great ideas from students hard at work in the Gardner Building, one designed to be different; dedicated to elevating those who will make a difference.