The L Gale Lemerand Student Center Transforms the Daytona State College campus, Florida architecture images
The L Gale Lemerand Student Center in Daytona
July 12, 2023
Design: ikon.5 architects
Location: Daytona State College, Florida, USA

Photos by Brad Feinknopf
The L Gale Lemerand Student Center, USA
ikon.5 architects proudly introduce the 74,000-square-foot The L Gale Lemerand Student Center at Daytona State College, establishing an iconic presence to the campus along International Speedway Boulevard, connecting its famed beachfront with the rest of Florida.

Solving a campus planning dilemma of ubiquitous parking lots and background buildings facing the public way, an organically curving stone and bronze wall now faces the boulevard, embracing visitors like two outreached arms creating a landscaped welcome lawn, and defining a clear point of campus entry.
Rising from the center of the gently curving wall is an iconic bronze portal framing the opening to the student center and giving passage to the campus quadrangle beyond. Internally, a three-story commons overlooks the quadrangle and serves as the campus living room. Dining, a coffee shop, a gaming lounge, and group study rooms ring the student center commons.

An amphitheater on the second and third floors cantilevers into the commons and looks out onto the campus quadrangle. The amphitheater provides a theatrical experience giving students the ability to see and be seen, thereby reinforcing a sense of community a...