The 2-story, 67,260-square-foot Nevada State University Christenson Education Building is the fourth building on the fast-growing campus in Henderson, Nevada. It was designed to fit into the desert landscape and enhance the natural surroundings.

The design team worked through an intense programming effort to identify the dean's mission and vision for this building, as well as the program needs and requirements, particularly for the unique programmatic elements of an early childhood center and speech pathology clinic.

The space includes classrooms, hands-on learning spaces, speech-language pathology labs and therapy, faculty offices, collaboration space, and an Early Childhood Development Center.

The design utilizes color and light to create an environment welcoming to small children and college students. Vertical bi-fold glass creates indoor and outdoor classroom spaces, allowing the playground to become an extension of each classroom. The building program also includes a state-of-the-art preschool with an innovative educational environment to train new preschool teachers to help alleviate a critical teacher shortage in Nevada.

"Throughout this building you will see lots of spaces where learning is possible, to encourage students, and I am not just talking about the classrooms, which are beautiful, I’m talking about the spaces all over the building. Formal learning and informal learning happening in these spaces. This building was based on teaching as a collaborative world, you will find opportunities for collaboration."
Former Dean Dennis Potthoff, NSU School of Education

This project is set to target LEED Equivalent and Green Globes Certification.