Lower Sproul Redevelopment

Dan J on November 17, 2023

The Lower Sproul Redevelopment Project called for recasting the existing facilities at Lower Sproul Plaza into a state-of-the-art campus center. The project is comprised of a new multiuse building for student organizations (replacing an existing facility), the renovation and expansion of the MLK Student Union, an improved student resource center, and a new plaza wired for a range of uses. Additionally, key connections to the campus and city are opened up, providing access to a new transportation hub and to downtown Berkeley.

The design team approached the project as an opportunity to celebrate the programmatic activities of student life. Based on careful observation and mapping of how students migrate through public space, the team shaped a movement framework that enables the most effective community-making. Shaping the architecture, open spaces, and programmatic placements in response to this analysis invites new patterns of use that are now woven into the campus and city fabric.

Given the transparency of the buildings now surrounding the plaza, the activities within the buildings and on the plaza become mutually reinforcing. Students are simultaneously drawn outside to see and participate in a performance, and inside to use a wide range of programs and amenities.

South Lawn College of Arts and Sciences

Dan J on November 17, 2023

At almost ten times the density of Thomas Jefferson’s original “Academical Village,” the South Lawn is the opening round of a new district on the historic UVA Grounds, planned with the utmost concern for the harmony of buildings and landscape, and providing over 110,000 square feet of new academic program for the College of Arts and Sciences. While visually separated, and positioned approximately 60 feet downhill from the Central Grounds, the project effectively extends the axis of the original Lawn across Jefferson Park Avenue with a broad landscaped terrace. The complex’s design translates the classical composition, scale and diversity of Jefferson’s iconic village into contemporary place-making.

The ultimate theme of the project is connectivity—physically, culturally, and historically. Starting at the lawn terrace, the central Commons  serves as a focal point for pedestrian traffic from multiple levels and directions and redistributes movement vertically and horizontally throughout the College. The  four-story wings of the new building frame a central courtyard with a matrix of offices, classrooms, meeting rooms, and ‘flow spaces’- fulfilling the University’s philosophy of integrating students and faculty. Landscape design by Cheryl Barton and Walter Hood roots the project in place with a sweeping reintegration of site hydrology, history, topography, and pedestrian pathways.

Sloan School of Management

Dan J on November 17, 2023

The Sloan School of Management is a physical and symbolic hub for the management program at MIT, creating a social and academic “heart” within the East Campus. This 217,000 sf building consolidates faculty offices by grouping them in clusters around the perimeter of the building, while a new two-story lobby is the beginning of a set of public spaces, including the business center, dining, student lounges, and study rooms. The curving form of the dining area and public spaces on the lower levels are designed to shape a significant open space along Memorial Drive overlooking the Charles River. This provides much-needed open space for both the Sloan School and MIT, and opens the campus to the greater Cambridge community.

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