A glazed box revealing floors wrapped in a terracotta screen forms part of this new academic facility, designed by CO Architects for a university in Kansas City.
Built on the site of a former parking lot, the Health Education Building is located on a prominent corner in the University of Kansas Medical Center campus – on the Kansas side of the state border with Missouri. It serves as the primary educational facility for the institution's medical, nursing and allied health programs.

The six-storey building was designed by Los Angeles-based CO Architects in collaboration with local studio Helix Architecture + Design.
"As the campus continues to grow, the Health Education Building will emerge as the geographical centre and interdisciplinary resource among the existing concentration of clinical, research and educational buildings," the team said in a project description.
Roughly rectangular in plan, the building consists of two wings, with a glazed connector volume running between them. Encompassing 171,744 square feet (15,956 square metres), the facility contains classrooms, simulation labs, clinical skills rooms and student life space.

Exterior walls are wrapped in glass and reddish brick. On the west elevation, the upper level of the building cantilevers over the site and reaches toward an active street. Glazed facades provide a clear view of the interior, where volumes containing labs are enclosed in a terracotta screen.

"The cantilevered west wing...