The 75,000 square-foot two-story facility is a premier destination for classroom and conferencing space, undergraduate and graduate degrees, and professional development. The two-story atrium area is the focal point to the design. The two-story high curtain wall provides a strong visual image of the adjacent protected wetland area and allows natural light to extend throughout a majority of the building. Within the atrium area, the exposed glue-laminated wood beams and cantilevered walkway enhance the building’s natural presence within its surrounding environment. Lastly, the two glass covered steel-framed canopies, with arrayed steel tension rods, provide strong entrances for the facility. The predominately steel-framed structure utilizes composite steel beams and girders supporting concrete slabs with composite steel deck to resist gravity loads at the floor and steel beams and joists with steel deck at the roof. Due to the unique geometry and the building’s open floor plan, the lateral resisting system utilizes steel braced frames. The foundations utilize shallow reinforced concrete footings with reinforced masonry basement walls at the partial basement area. The building was featured on the cover of American School & University magazine in August 2007. The Regional Learning Alliance’s website can be viewed at www.therla.org.