With data centers on a path to becoming one of the largest project types in the country over the next 10 years, Lawrence Technological University’s College of Architecture and Design (CoAD) is preparing its students to make major contributions to sustainability and energy efficiency while responding to the growing demand.
Partners in Education: CoAD and HKS
This semester’s Advanced Design Studio 2 (ADS 2) course is sponsored by HKS, a global design firm founded in 1939 with offices in Detroit and 28 domestic and international cities. HKS is intimately involved in the design and construction of data centers around the country and the world.
Cloud storage, mobile data traffic, and artificial intelligence are among the needs driving the significant increase in data centers and computing capacity. This skyrocketing demand has created power constraints and associated environmental concerns, as well as urgent community and urban design considerations.
Led by Distinguished Industry Leaders
ADS 2 is co-taught by Adjunct Professor Betsy Williams, a Principal and Office Design Leader at HKS, and Bernie Woytek, Partner and the firm’s Mission Critical Central Regional Director, whose expertise and leadership in the data center industry are unparalleled. Woytek has designed and delivered over 30 million square feet of data centers during the past three decades, earning the trust of clients worldwide. His commitment to industry excellence and dedication to forging and maintaining strong client relationships provide invaluable expertise to the ADS 2 students.
Which is why CoAD Interim Dean Lilian Crum said, “Architects and designers are well positioned to bridge the operational, environmental, and social needs of this complex typology, and there are opportunities for emerging architects to have significant impact. Professor Williams is teaching and arming our Master of Architecture students with tools to work in this field and exercise ideation and limitless thinking skills that apply to data centers or any sector.”
Online and In Line with the Future
Williams and Woytek are teaching this online studio in a salon format, an interactive model with short, focused lessons and group discussion. In the “Introduction to Planning Basics,” Data Center 101, students are learning about best practices and emerging themes. Students are then researching critical topics germane to planning a data center, such as sustainability, construction and digital delivery innovation, emerging typologies and technologies (hybrid, edge, etc.), and community engagement and impact. The need for big data and more data makes data centers an essential building type. The real question is whether they are designed thoughtfully, sustainably, and in ways that benefit communities; this is why architecture education must engage with real-world, mission-critical practices like HKS.
“It’s our job as forward-looking architecture and design educators,” said Crum, “to ensure that our students understand the very real environmental and community concerns surrounding data centers, and to shape how they can be designed and built responsibly.”
Williams said, “I’m addressing both issues with my ADS 2 students, encouraging them to research how, as architects, they can be responsive to them while learning to design to meet the growing demand in sustainable, environmentally safe ways.”
The Value of Industry-Sponsored Studios
Elizabeth Dizik, CoAD’s Director of External Academic Initiatives, said, “Industry-sponsored studios like this one with HKS are invaluable to CoAD students.
“They provide real-world constraints, professional expectations, and collaborative opportunities that prepare students for the complexities of contemporary architecture practice,” she said. “We’re grateful to HKS for sponsoring this important studio.”
The Students’ Perspective
Rebecca Morales and Tim Landini, both graduating with their master’s in architecture degree in 2026, are finding exposure to this new data center typology to their great benefit.
Morales serves as a Digital Delivery Leader and Senior Architectural Designer at GFT in their New Brunswick, NJ, office, where she supports firmwide digital initiatives by improving workflows, advancing BIM practices using Autodesk Revit, and integrating emerging technologies to enhance collaboration and project delivery. She also leads the development and coordination of architectural projects from design through construction, working closely with multidisciplinary teams to produce and manage detailed building documentation.
She said, “This course is really interesting. This studio has come at a pivotal time for me professionally. My firm is beginning to explore data center work, and because of this experience, I now have the opportunity to be on the front lines of that effort. The design knowledge and perspective that Betsy and Bernie have shared throughout the studio have given me a strong foundation to contribute meaningfully to these projects.
Landini, who’s been with OHM Advisors as a project coordinator since 2022, agrees. “This is a new typology. Getting up to speed on more advanced technologies and learning about cooling the data center, electricity usage, and the required land use is important to me.”
He’s chosen to build a data room as his studio project. “My previous server room with air cooling knowledge is 20 years old. In this course, I’m learning how to design a data center with a sustainable closed-loop water system.”
