Dallas-based Brown Reynolds Watford Architects Inc. is the architect of record while the internationally renowned Antoine Predock and Craig Reynolds, principal, will steer the team. Tentative plans call for the 100,000-sf, three-story University Center to break ground in late fall 2002 and deliver in 2004. The project is part of a second development phase funded by a $104-million capital campaign.

Reynolds tells GlobeSt.com that the signature building will retain the architectural integrity of the Texas vernacular design established by the late O'Neil Ford of San Antonio--with some modifications. "To some degree, we will be playing off his architecture, but making sure that this is a building new to the campus," says Reynolds. "It essentially starts a new era for them."

University Center will house the graduate school of management and administrative offices for the 24-building campus that has been developing since the 1950s. A new entrance is part of the undertaking for the marquis structure, all targeting a "new front door" to the private institution. The university is bordered by Texas 114, Braniff Drive and East Northgate near Texas Stadium in Irving.

Predock has designed key buildings for Stanford, Rice and Arizona State universities. His architectural credits also extend to structures in Paris, Copenhagen and Agadir, Morocco. "The University of Dallas is an international university and because of that," says Ilene Stern, vice president of institutional advancement, "we needed to find an internationally acclaimed architect." The Brown Reynolds Watford team has designed all but one building that's come to market in the past eight years for the university.