Monday not only marked the first day of school, but also the unveiling of the highly anticipated Center for Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED).

Seniors Abby Downey and Gwendolyn Frank said they never thought they would be excited for their first day of college again.

After three years of bouncing from building to building for architecture classes and studio time, they walked into a building of their own.

“Everyone’s just checking out he building trying to figure out where their classes are. So it’s new not knowing where your classes are, because usually we do,” Downey said.

What was previously a cluster of locations: Tri-Towers, the fourth floor of Taylor Hall, and the Mac Annex, is now one cohesive whole. All majors in the CAED and all grade levels, have been fused.

“There’s this great collaboration between all the different years whereas before we were all spread out between the different buildings” Frank said.

Kent State unveils new architecture building from KentWired.com on Vimeo.

Located along the Lefton Esplanade, the 170,000 square foot building was designed to represent the strengthened relationship between the city of Kent and the university.

But with the relationship comes along another relationship. Being so close to the other designers, Fashion students were eager to share the space. Unwanted or not, the building welcomed them with its café and many lounges. Fashion Design major Aceani Ross-Bigbee, was one of those students.

“I think there’s a lot of space in here,” Ross-Bigbee said. “I feel like there’s a lot of opportunity for a lot of people to come in here. Especially downstairs with all of the study areas and things like that. I feel like we could make it work.”

Kent State unveils new architecture building from KentWired.com on Vimeo.

Associate Dean William Willoughby said the question of space has come up on the first day and that’s something the staff is still figuring out.

“We’ll have to get to know the building and the building will have to get to know us,” Wiloughby said. “There’s still problems, there’s still things that are being worked out, but the problems are minor in comparison to how phenomenon the building is.”