Higher Education
BT-686 Student Union Expansion
Client
The Beck Group
Project Owner
Florida Atlantic University
Location
Boca Raton, Florida
Project Value
$25,100,000
Industry
Higher Education
Account Executive(s)
Joshua Harden, Tom Thomas
Services Provided
Construction Logistics Animations |
Renderings & Animations |
Still Renderings |
Higher Education
BT-686 Student Union Expansion
Client
The Beck Group
Project Owner
Florida Atlantic University
Location
Boca Raton, Florida
Project Value
$25,100,000
Industry
Higher Education
Account Executive(s)
Joshua Harden, Tom Thomas
Services Provided
Construction Logistics Animations |
Renderings & Animations |
Still Renderings |
Project Overview
Florida Atlantic University set out to expand and unify its Student Union complex in Boca Raton, Florida with a $25 million multi-component project. The scope encompassed a new one-story multipurpose event center featuring a grand room convertible into six breakout rooms, a warming kitchen, and support spaces. A redesigned outdoor courtyard would connect the complex toward the library, serving as an informal student gathering space with natural shading and indigenous landscaping. Exterior facade updates across all existing facilities would tie the complex together visually, alongside a first-floor renovation to improve day-to-day student flow. The client engaged PRESWERX to produce renderings and animations for the pursuit.
Client Challenges
Communicating a four-component expansion to a higher education owner required a visual story that was both architecturally specific and experientially compelling. The core challenges were clear:
A project spanning new construction, courtyard design, facade renovation, and interior reconfiguration needed visuals that held together as a single unified campus story, not four separate scopes.
A university owner evaluating student union improvements focuses on how spaces will feel and function for students day to day, which demands more than architectural drawings can convey.
Differentiating the team in a competitive public higher education selection required visual materials specific enough to demonstrate a genuine understanding of the project's program and campus context.
These challenges called for visualization that could make a multi-part expansion feel cohesive and student-centered from the first image.
Scope of Work
PRESWERX produced renderings and animations tailored to the four distinct components of the Student Union expansion. Renderings captured the new event center's grand room, convertible breakout spaces, and exterior character, as well as the courtyard's informal gathering environments and landscaping design. Animations brought the project's spatial relationships to life, illustrating how the new construction, updated facades, and redesigned courtyard would function together as a unified campus destination. Together, the deliverables gave reviewers a clear picture of how each component served students and how the full expansion would transform the Student Union complex.
PRESWERX Approach
PRESWERX focused the visual work on the thread connecting all four components: the student experience the expansion was designed to create:
Renderings prioritized the environments where students spend time, from the event room and its breakout configurations to the courtyard's shaded gathering areas, capturing the atmosphere each space intended.
Animations illustrated how new construction, courtyard design, facade updates, and interior renovations worked together as one destination rather than four separate scopes.
Visual sequencing moved from the new event center through the courtyard to the renovated interiors, mirroring how students would actually move through the expanded complex.
The approach kept every deliverable anchored in the student experience, matching how a university owner evaluates a student union investment.
Results Delivered
PRESWERX delivered a visual package built to bring clarity and cohesion to a multipart campus expansion:
Renderings provided program-accurate depictions of the event center, courtyard gathering spaces, and renovated interiors, ready for submission documents and on-screen use during the live presentation.
Animations gave reviewers a spatial understanding of how all four project components connected, making the full expansion read as a unified student destination rather than a list of separate scopes.
Together, the two formats built a pursuit narrative specific enough to reflect the project's complexity and accessible enough for a university review panel to evaluate with confidence.
The client stepped into the selection with materials that framed a technically layered expansion as a single, student-centered story.
.png)
SUCCESS STORIES
Proven Results Across High-Stakes Pursuits
Explore how we’ve helped leading A/E/C teams craft standout proposals and presentations, build confidence, and win major projects with strategy, storytelling, smart visuals, and coaching.