Harris A. Smith Building at Clemson University

Students and researchers at Clemson University are participating in the country's only university program that ties together packaging science, graphic communications, environmental science, manufacturing principles, and marketing aspects.

The multidisciplinary program began early this year in the new $7 million Harris A. Smith Building, home to the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics.

Designed by architecture firm Lord, Aeck & Sargent in collaboration with Michael Keeshen & Associates, the 28,000-square-foot structure is on track to become Clemson's first U.S. Green Building Council certified LEED Gold building.

The building was specifically sited and designed to actively relate to the buildings around it, and to engage the people who occupy it as well as those who circulate through and connect in this emerging campus precinct.

"Just as the Sonoco Institute is about the connection of a wide variety of disciplines, our siting and design of the Harris A. Smith Building is about connection, too - intentional campus connection," said Joe Greco, Lord, Aeck & Sargent principal in charge of the project.