Jim Moran Building

Design Team
Design Team: Rodney L. Lewis, AIA (Principal Architect); Cam Whitlock, AIA (Architect); Alana Taylor, Assoc. AIA, Ryan Sheplak, Assoc. AIA (Designers); Culpepper Construction (Builder); Moore Bass Consulting (Civil Engineer); Bliss & Nyitray (Structural Engineer); H2 Engineering (MEP Engineers)

Dedicated to cultivating entrepreneurial growth, the Jim Moran Building is a downtown extension of Florida State University and an urban hub for connecting students and entrepreneurs with professionals, business mentors, university faculty, and entrepreneurial resources. The renovation of a 19th-century bank building provides a backdrop for the legacy of Jim Moran, a forward-thinking entrepreneur and automotive pioneer whose story is woven throughout the building with one goal in mind: to inspire future generations of entrepreneurs.

The building houses the Jim Moran Institute on the 3rd floor and the Florida State University Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship on the 2nd. The College of Entrepreneurship, the nation’s first at a public university, accommodates a pitch room, start-up incubator, and staff offices. The ground floor has a shared gallery entry, event space and a flexible catering kitchen/lounge space.

Jim Moran’s business practices, as well as his life, were transparent in so many ways that it was fitting for the building to reflect that notion of transparency. The front façade and back facades incorporate glass curtainwall over three stories, providing views into the building from the downtown streetscapes. Pedestrians have street-level views into the space to catch glimpses of entrepreneurial activities, including business pitches, lectures, collaborative student activities and a gallery of memorabilia and student works. Inside the building, meeting rooms, classrooms, and offices are designed to maximize transparency. Views and natural light permeate through the building from each end.

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