2024-05-03T17:23:45-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150231504/steven-holl-s-just-opened-winter-visual-arts-building-emerged-from-a-sketch-of-a-kite-stuck-in-the-trees Sean Joyner 2020-10-05T12:46:00-04:00 >2024-03-15T01:45:58-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/5c/5cd88daa9fb69e6634c04b8a27c53ebf.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>Just completed this month, the new Winter Visual Arts Building, designed by <a href="https://archinect.com/stevenholl" target="_blank">Steven Holl Architects</a>, takes shape on the historic campus of <a href="https://archinect.com/fandm" target="_blank">Franklin &amp; Marshal College</a> in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The formal qualities of the new structure takes its inspiration from the kite Benjamin Franklin wielded when he first "harnessed electricity." The initial sketches of the building embraces the webbed form of a kite "stuck in the trees."</p> <figure><figure><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/75/75b3f7de2c3cd92f1783dc1549175e81.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1028" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/75/75b3f7de2c3cd92f1783dc1549175e81.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=514"></a><figcaption>&copy; Steven Holl</figcaption></figure></figure><p>Moreover, the design team moved to play off the geometry of the 200-year-old trees that surround the site. "We thought of the geometry of trees as a way to give shape to the new arts building. Instead of echoing the rectangular block of the former arts building, the new pavilion takes its shape from the inflection of the diameters of those large campus trees," the architects write in a statement.</p> <figure><figure><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/4b/4bfea14ee4f9b10a04aec4f1aa9f677b.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1028" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/4b/4bfea14ee4f9b10a04aec4f1aa9f677b.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=514"></a><figcaption>&copy; Iwan Baan</figcaption></figure></figure><p>The resulting architecture is a raised two-story "box-kite" steel frame that sits on two ground floor concrete rectangles. The creates a series...</p> https://archinect.com/news/article/149944687/steven-holl-designs-concave-response-lighting-for-new-visual-arts-building Julia Ingalls 2016-05-11T13:01:00-04:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/wy/wylpligimsyx7ens.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>"We don't&nbsp;have&nbsp;a&nbsp;single&nbsp;'style,'" <a href="http://archinect.com/features/article/140953853/a-dance-for-architecture-a-conversation-with-steven-holl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Steven Holl</a> explained in reference to his firm's new four level, 35,000 square foot Visual Arts Building commissioned for the <a href="http://archinect.com/fandm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Franklin &amp; Marshall College</a>. "We always try to shape a unique&nbsp;experience, and our approach is the same with this project. We look to create something of this place, to inspire future students."</p><p><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/650x/7g/7gfv9zosmnr1flu9.jpg"></p><p>Influenced heavily by the numerous hundred-year-old-plus trees that occupy the&nbsp;site, the Visual Arts Building is conceived as rising like a kite into the arboreal canopy and features a glass-enclosed forum on the ground floor that allows a clear view from the building's campus side of Buchanan Park.</p><p><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/650x/tt/tt85rithlj88vhuc.jpg"></p><p>A variety of faculty and advanced student studios, as well as a lecture hall/film screening auditorium and dedicated film labs, will compliment the project's classroom space.&nbsp;</p><p><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/650x/kx/kxtlxnga6dqa2kff.jpg"></p><p>In addition to geothermal heating and cooling, the project features an inventive, noteworthy take on lighting. In this case, the "building&rsquo;s light profile is a concave r...</p>