Archinect - News

'Architecture as blossoms of the human spirit': Steven Holl reflects on 50 years of practice

2024-04-18T16:13:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects turns fifty this month. The globe-spanning operation that first began in California in 1974 and formed in New York three years later has been behind some of contemporary architecture’s most celebrated designs with 79 realized works in 13 U.S. states and 15 countries. Now, with five new projects in the pipeline, founder Steven Holl has shared with Archinect some reflections on his journey through architecture to mark the special anniversary milestone as part of a year-long commemoration.

St. Ignatius; concept watercolor from "Steven Holl", courtesy of Phaidon.

“Architecture is a great art with potential to change the way we live. I love drawing and painting ideas for architecture with the hope of public spaces realized as a gift to future generations. Merged with landscapes and ecologically advanced, I am looking forward to architecture as blossoms of the human spirit. As Frank Lloyd Wright said, ‘Buildings, too, are children of the Earth and Sun," he told us wh...

Steven Holl and SKUPINA-designed Terezín Ghetto Museum advances

2024-02-02T15:16:00-05:00

Steven Holl Architects is advancing toward the start of their Terezín Ghetto Museum project in the Czech Republic. The firm was named the winner of an international competition to design an extension of the existing museum in 2022 and will deliver the project on the site, which was first constructed as a citadel in 1780. The Schematic Design phase was completed in March.

Commemorating the lives of an estimated 33,000 Jews that were lost under Nazi occupation in Terezín between 1939 and 1942, the Museum is an important tool in the culture sector’s response to antisemitism and will result in a “hopeful new presence” in a country whose social fabric is seen by some as being strained by hate groups and far-right extremists.

Image courtesy Steven Holl Architects

SKUPINA, the 21-year-old studio founded in Prague by Marcela Steinbachová, is included as the co-architect of the scheme. The pair had previously collaborated on a small renovation project for the interiors of the Franz Kafka Soci...

The Hunters Point Library case highlights the ADA's failures to prevent inequality by design

2023-07-24T11:35:00-04:00

More than 30 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law, mandating reasonable accommodations and accessibility features for people with disabilities. Yet to this day, ADA noncompliant sidewalks, crosswalks, and public transportation stops permeate U.S. cities from coast to coast.

The plaintiff in the Hunters Point Library suit against Steven Holl — disability advocate Tanya Jackson — is another high-profile case highlighting the effects of racial health inequality in design and the failures of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for Black disabled citizens, 37% of whom are experiencing poverty.

Some critics have begun apologizing for hyping certain flawed aspects of its design. Recently, the LA Times’ Carolina Miranda diagnosed it as “a structure in which architectural gymnastics have elbowed out basic function” after her own timely house call.

New York City sues Steven Holl Architects over inaccessible Hunters Point Library design

2023-05-19T19:04:00-04:00

New York City is suing the architects behind the Hunters Point Library for tens of millions of dollars over portions of the structure not being accessible to people with handicaps, in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. [...] The city’s lawsuit was filed May 17 in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. The defendants are Steven Holl Architect, PC, aka Steven Holl Architects, and the individuals Steven Holl and Christopher McVoy.

The original lawsuit was brought to Federal court in November 2019 by a local disability advocate named Tanya Jackson. The project debuted just two months prior and drew the immediate ire of critics who were quick to point out the flaws in its $41.5 million non-universal design. Steven Holl Architects senior partner McVoy has defended the project as "incredibly successful" since that time and now faces a total of $10 million in potential damages alongside Holl. Another $20 million could be assessed against the firm depending on the lawsuit’s outcome.

Previously on Archinect: Class action lawsuit filed in Hunters Point Library accessibility dispute

According to the complaint: "As designed and built, the Library failed in multiple ways to comply with the design requirements set forth in the requirements contract and Task Order 1. The areas of noncompliance included several primary design elements of the building, as well as ADA standards for bathroom layout, door clearances, and the li...

Steven Holl’s zinc-clad Ostrava Concert Hall set to begin construction

2023-04-21T11:39:00-04:00

Construction is set to begin on the Steven Holl Architects-designed Ostrava Concert Hall in the Czech Republic. Hall won the competition for the scheme’s design back in 2018 with a proposal that saw the concert hall “encased” in a case of zinc.

Image credit: Steven Holl Architects

The 1,300-seat concert hall was designed in collaboration with Prague-based associate architects Architecture Acts and is being developed in collaboration with the city of Ostrava. The team has previously described the scheme as a “perfect acoustic instrument in its case,” with a smooth facade of zinc covering a vineyard-type concert hall plan made of concrete and maple wood.

Image credit: Steven Holl Architects

“We celebrate the completion of construction drawings and building permit with the hope of realizing this great public work for the joy of future generations,” Hall said as the scheme prepares to begin construction. “Ostrava’s legacy of music, the highest art, shall get a space of perfect acoustics a...

Steven Holl completes Rubenstein Commons at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ

2022-11-30T13:16:00-05:00

Steven Holl Architects has reached another milestone following the completion of the new Rubenstein Commons at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, in late October.

The new 17,175-square-foot building provides the 92-year-old IAS with much-needed modern facilities while serving as a social condenser for researchers and the broader academic community.

Photo: Paul Warchol, image courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

Its design is inspired by the impetus for scholarly collaboration and therefore features a series of intertwining spaces set within an undulating, low-rise volume that connects to the existing Fuld Hall building and a trio of adjacent water features located to the north, west, and south on the IAS’s 589-acre campus.

Photo: Paul Warchol, image courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

“By having the ability to come together, the grea...

Kevin Lippert, influential Princeton Architectural Press founder, has passed away aged 63

2022-04-01T18:37:00-04:00

The architecture and publishing worlds have lost an icon after news broke yesterday about the passing of legendary Princeton Architectural Press founder Kevin Lippert on March 29th following a long battle with cancer.

Lippert founded the Press while still a student at the Princeton University School of Architecture in 1981. He was instrumental in publishing Steven Holl’s seminal 1989 manifesto Anchoring, which launched the architect’s name into the mainstream and continues to be considered one of the most fundamental design texts of the past half-century.

Very sorry to hear about the death of Kevin Lippert, founder of Princeton Architectural Press. Though I did not work with Kevin directly on the two books I did with PAP, his impact on those projects was clearly felt. pic.twitter.com/HTJauCCKvl
— Blair Kamin (@BlairKamin) March 30, 2022

His direction led the development of the once small company into a relative giant in the world of commercial book publishing, expanding several time...

Chybik + Kristof's new Ostrava Tower will become the tallest skyscraper in the Czech Republic

2022-02-15T18:49:00-05:00

The Czech Republic is set to receive yet another major new architectural addition after Chybik + Kristof unveiled plans for what it says will become the country’s tallest skyscraper.

Located in the central district of Ostrava, the 235-meter (771-foot) Ostrava Tower is a case for “[reconsidering] the typology of the skyscraper into a new functional entity responsive to the contemporary social needs,” according to the architects. Namely, the 98,000-square-meter (1.05-million-square-foot) multi-use building will bring to light the important activation of public space caused by the infill project which began in 2019.

Visualization: Igor Brozyna - PLACES studio, NORVISKA, Dousek Zaborsky

Ostrava is in the process of completing its three-decade transformation from a coal and heavy metals producer to a newer economy that leans on its rich stock of traditional architecture in order to create the necessary spaces required to keep up with the demands of its million-plus inhabitants in the met...

Steven Holl Architects international exhibition is on view at Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, Poland

2021-06-15T16:40:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects’ traveling exhibition, Steven Holl: Making Architecture, has opened at the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, Poland. This is the first venue to host the showcase in Europe, as the ninth stop of the exhibition’s tour.

The exhibit opened on June 11th, exclusively through an online broadcast and opened to the public the following day. Steven Holl: Making Architecture explores Holl’s intricate and distinctive creative process of making architecture through eleven projects, featuring a collection of approximately one hundred models, sketches, and other related studies. The exhibition highlights the rapidly changing pace of architecture, specifically, the way ideas are formed and visualized as manual tasks fade in favor of digital approaches. Steven Holl’s design approach that he is using to challenge the trend towards digitization, which famously includes painting in watercolors at every stage of a building’s construction, is put on full display.

View of the exh...

First photos and a virtual tour of Steven Holl's new Kinder Building at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

2020-11-19T17:28:00-05:00

Nearly eight years after selecting Steven Holl's ambitious expansion concept, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is preparing to officially open the completed structure to the public on Saturday, November 21.

Dedicated to the collection of modern and contemporary art, the new 237,000-sf Nancy and Rich Kinder Building houses galleries, seven garden courtyards, a 215-seat theater, two pedestrian tunnels, a parking arrival hall, conference rooms, a restaurant overlooking the Isamu Noguchi sculpture garden, a cafe, and a triple-story forum.

North facade. © Richard Barnes.

"The Texas sky opens 180°overhead above a luminous canopy covering the new building," explains the architects' project description. "Concave curves, imagined from cloud circles, push down on the roof geometry, allowing natural light to slip in with precise measure and quality, perfect for top-lit galleries. Organized horizontally on two levels, all galleries have natural light and are flexible with open flow."

East facad...

Steven Holl's just-opened Winter Visual Arts Building emerged from a sketch of a kite stuck in the trees

2020-10-05T12:46:00-04:00

Just completed this month, the new Winter Visual Arts Building, designed by Steven Holl Architects, takes shape on the historic campus of Franklin & Marshal College 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."

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.

The resulting architecture is a raised two-story "box-kite" steel frame that sits on two ground floor concrete rectangles. The creates a series...

New sculpture by Steven Holl installed at the Art Omi Sculpture and Architecture Park

2020-07-17T15:26:00-04:00

The new sculpture, called Obolin, uses cross laminated timber (CLT) to create three cutouts subtracted from a spherical geometry to mark the location of the sun's vector based on its Hudson Valley location at noon on the Summer and Winter Solstices, and at 2:00pm on the Equinox.

Obolin was fabricated from a single, 50-foot-long sheet of CLT, and was stack laminated and milled with a 7-axis robotic arm. This is the second sculpture by Steven Holl to be installed at Art Omi's Sculpture and Architecture Park. The first was One Two Five, a sculpture cut by CNC from a "21-million-year-old Lecce limestone" installed back in 2018.

Watch Steven Holl Architects’ new Kennedy Center addition come to life

2020-04-17T16:14:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects has unveiled a new video highlighting the firm’s designs for a new wing that has been added to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The REACH at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from Steven Holl Architects on Vimeo.

The video, embedded above, highlights the 72,000-square-foot building and the set of open studios, rehearsal and performance spaces, and dedicated arts learning spaces included in the project, as well as the design’s considered layout and site configuration. The singular addition is situation below an occupiable roof marked by three pavilions.

The project, which features eye-catching “crinkle concrete” interior finishes that help absorb sound, debuted to the public in 2019.

The video was developed with the help of Spirit of Space, a group that has produced architectural videos for firms that include Studio Gang, SHoP, SOM, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and others.

...

A decade in the making, Steven Holl's Queens Library prepares for its grand opening

2019-09-19T15:48:00-04:00

The Hunters Point Community Library is one of the finest public buildings New York has produced this century. But it cost more than $40 million, took a decade and almost died.

NYT architecture critic Michael Kimmelman is full of praise for the Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Community Library in Queens which will finally be opening to the public next week Tuesday, September 24th.

Impression of the under-construction library building in November 2017. Photo: Jim Henderson/Wikimedia Commons

"Compact, at 22,000 square feet and 82 feet high, the library is among the finest and most uplifting public buildings New York has produced so far this century," writes Kimmelman and asks: "Why can’t New York build more things like this, faster and cheaper?"

A look at the Kennedy Center's sound-diffusing "crinkle concrete"

2019-09-12T13:00:00-04:00

When you have two concrete parallel walls, like we do in our rehearsal spaces and then in the Justice Forum [an intimate theater space], parallel walls are really bad for acoustics. You get a condition called flutter echo, where you have two sound waves bouncing off two parallel hard surfaces. So we had to break that sound up. What we needed to do was create a random texture which would diffuse and break up the sound. That’s where we came up with crinkled concrete.

In a recent interview with CityLab, Steven Holl Architects' senior associate Garrick Ambrose discusses a design solution the firm created in order to mediate acoustics within their newly opened Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts expansion, The REACH, in Washington, D.C.

Image © Richard Barnes

Ambrose shares with CityLab, "We knew that we needed to create a three-inch-deep texture in the concrete surface that would diffuse and break up the sound to mitigate the echo. We knew that the pattern needed to be as random as possible."

"We experimented in our shop with different ways of getting that three-inch relief. When we stumbled upon crinkling the metal, we found that it was incredibly striking visually, and it gave us the random pattern needed, and it also gave us the three-inch depth to break up the sound."

New preview photos of Steven Holl Architect's Kennedy Center expansion, The REACH, ahead of September opening

2019-06-03T18:32:00-04:00

New preview photos have been released of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' anticipated expansion project, called the REACH.

The Steven Holl Architects-designed ensemble of three contiguous pavilions broke ground in 2014 and is scheduled to officially open to the public with a 16-day festival from September 7th through the 22nd this year.

Skylight Pavilion and Welcome Pavilion Exterior. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

Part of the Center's $250m Building the Future capital campaign, the REACH is the D.C. institution's first major expansion project since its opening on September 8, 1971.

Below is a selection of photos of the nearly completed 4.6-acre complex we have received from Steven Holl Architects.

Welcome Pavilion and Skylight Pavilion Exterior. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

Welcome Pavilion Exterior Windows. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

Window and Custom Hanging Lights, Skylight Pavilion Detail. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

Triangle Stairs. Photo: Jonathan Morefield.

White Boa...

Steven Holl Architects breaks ground on new Winter Visual Arts Center at Franklin & Marshall College

2018-03-28T15:16:00-04:00

Yesterday, Steven Holl Architects broke ground on Franklin & Marshall College's new $29 million, four level, 35,000 square foot Visual Arts Building. The Susan & Benjamin Winter Visual Arts Center, named for the trustees who helped fund the project, will bring a wide range of teaching studios, galleries managed by the Phillips Museum of Art, classrooms, student and faculty work spaces, space for digital and analog film production and editing, and an 84-seat cinema that doubles as lecture hall and performance space.

Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

Described by Holl as a "pavillion on the park," the design was heavily influenced by the numerous hundred-year-old-plus trees that populate the campus. "Raised kite-like into the trees, the building’s light profile is a concave response to the large diameters of the campus’ trees," describes the firm. Another prominent feature is a glass-enclosed forum in the center of the ground floor that will allow p...

Steven Holl Architects' Maggie's Centre at Barts is now open

2017-12-14T19:27:00-05:00

Over two years after the groundbreaking, the new Maggie's Centre Barts in Central London finally opened earlier this week. Located throughout the UK, Maggie's Centres offer free practical and emotional support for people who live with cancer and their loved ones.

Steven Holl Architects, along with UK firm jmarchitects, designed the 3-story building as a “vessel within a vessel within a vessel”. The new Maggie's Centre replaces a 1960s brick structure, adjacent to a 17th-century stone structure by James Gibbs.

Photo: Iwan Baan.

Built next to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (London's oldest hospital), the Centre's exterior shows off a translucent glass facade that gives the structure a glowing appearance. The facade has colored glass fragments arranged in horizontal bands like a musical staff, in reference to the “neume notation” of 13-century Medieval music, SHA describes.

Photo: Iwan Baan.

The building's translucent facade allows the interior to be filled with natural lig...

Steven Holl-designed Lewis Center for the Arts complex opens at Princeton University

2017-10-10T16:14:00-04:00

A four-day arts festival marked the opening of Princeton University's new Lewis Center for the Arts complex this past weekend. Designed by Steven Holl Architects in partnership with BNIM, the 145,000-sq-ft facility is comprised of three buildings — the Wallace Dance Building and Theater, the New Music Building, and the Arts Tower — and completes the university's long dream of uniting the Center’s programs in dance, theater, music theater, the Princeton Atelier, and the Department of Music’s expansion under one, well, three roofs.

The three buildings are interconnected underground and joined in an 8,000 square-foot open indoor gathering space, dubbed the Forum. A landscaped outdoor plaza with a reflecting pool and green spaces — developed in collaboration with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates — sits atop the Forum, and an outdoor installation by Maya Lin has been commissioned and will be added later.

Read on for more images and project details we've received from the ...

Archinect Sessions Episode 100 with Steven Holl

2017-04-13T18:42:00-04:00

This week, for our 100th episode of Archinect Sessions, we are excited to share our conversation with Archinect favorite Steven Holl. Our conversation spans a number of topics, including growing up in a small town in Washington state, his early career struggles, his inspirations, working in China, globalism, his friendship with Zaha, the Pritzker Prize, and the Steven Myron Holl Foundation.

Listen to "Archinect Sessions Episode 100 with Steven Holl":

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Download: this episode

Shownotes:

Malawi Library sketch

Steven Holl's Alvar Aalto medal

Anchoring, 1989, Princeton Architectural Press

The Steven Myron Holl Foundation announces a new summer architecture fellowship in Rhinebeck, New York

2017-04-06T17:47:00-04:00

The core aim of ’T’ Space, a nonprofit initiative of the Steven Myron Holl Foundation, is “the fusion of art, poetry, music, and architecture.” To that end, they have started a new architecture fellowship. Over the course of a 25 day intensive studio program, selected applicants will live at the “Fellow’s Cabin” on the 30-acre T2 Reserve in Rhinebeck, New York.

Residents are expected to work site-specifically in the Dutchess County area. Both analog and digital media tools are encouraged. The program includes design critiques, pin ups and conversations with instructors including Steven Holl.

In total, 5 undergraduate, graduate and young professionals will be selected by a panel to participate. Download the application here and submit by June 1.

For more information, you may direct any questions to Christine Ma, christine@smhfoundation.org

Steven Holl designs a pair of white concrete buildings for a new Cultural and Health Center in Shanghai

2017-01-25T12:48:00-05:00

“To work on architecture for culture and health is a social commitment during these challenging times,” states Steven Holl. His proposal for a new Cultural and Health Center in Shanghai has just received approval. Comprising two buildings set in a public landscape, the project is intended to bring a cluster of new housing blocks together.

Inspired by Karl Popper’s 1965 lecture on the evolutionary model of free will entitled, “Of Clouds and Clocks,” the landscape design is “organized in large clock-like circles forming a central public space, the buildings are cloud-like in their porosity and openness inviting the public in.”

The Cultural Center will be constructed in white concrete and set on a base of transparent glass, containing a cafe and recreation rooms. A curved ramp provides look-outs. The adjacent Health Center, also made of white concrete, is intended to fit into the curving landscape. This structure will house a health and education center, a pharmacy, examination rooms, an...

Watch "Ex of IN House," an unusual, compelling new video from Steven Holl

2017-01-24T12:43:00-05:00

Poetry, abstracted Venn diagrams of spheres, and a love for natural materials are just some of the components that go into this video from Steven Holl, who acts as a kind of a hyper-thoughtful Huell Howser as he explores a gorgeous new home parented primarily by concept. Entitled "Ex of IN House," the video explores the formulation, execution, and daily reality of a home built on a splendor of acreage in Rhinebeck, New York. Likening program to a bunch of bananas, Holl advocates for abstraction in the design process, explaining that with the concept of IN, "all space is sacred." With a soundtrack that seems to combine the plinkiness of Thomas Newman with the urgency of Clint Mansell, it's a bit of a wonder (click here to view).

Steven Holl to be honored at 2017 BOMB Magazine Gala

2016-12-19T16:49:00-05:00

BOMB Magazine, the influential art journal founded in 1981, will honor architect Steven Holl at its 2017 gala on May 5, 2017. Holl will be the first architect honored at the annual event.

"The logically unbridgeable gap between concepts and ideas and the world of sense perception is bridged by great works of art. I am deeply grateful to be honored by BOMB—an inspiring bridge connecting amazing artists' ideas," said Steven Holl.

Steven Holl Architects-designed library in Malawi approved

2016-12-12T17:01:00-05:00

The Miracle for Africa Foundation has given the go-ahead for a new library designed by Steven Holl Architects in Malawi. The first building for a new campus plan, also designed by Steven Holl Architects, the 66,000 sq. ft. library will be built, in part, with local materials like bamboo and stone, as well as use local labor for the construction.

One of the most distinctive features of the project, a curved pre-fabricated roof will be made with Ductile concrete. The forms will bounce light towards photovoltaic panels and into the interior of the building. A free plan, the library will include meeting rooms as well as glass-enclosed archives (the enclosure to maintain appropriate humidity levels). The circulation desk will stand next to a rain collecting pool.

The project is considered significant for Malawi, one of the smallest countries in Africa with a population of 16.7 million. It is one of the least developed countries in the world and one of the poorest.

“This project is historic,...

Steven Holl's Visual Arts Building opens Oct. 7th at University of Iowa

2016-10-06T19:34:00-04:00

On Friday October 7th, Steven Holl and Senior Partner Chris McVoy will be on hand to officially open the firm's Visual Arts Building for the University of Iowa, which in addition to being the only building in the United States that uses an integrated hydronic radiant heating and cooling system in combination with a cast-in-place "bubble deck" (thereby eliminating the need to cool or heat air mechanically), is simply gorgeous.

In a signature Steven Holl move, the interior is illuminated by seven vertical cutouts that are defined by the slide and jostle of the four floors against one another. This shifting dynamic creates opportunities for a series of balconies and informal working spaces.

Check out our conversation with Steven Holl from earlier this week:

For the latest on Steven Holl:

One-to-One #40 with Steven Holl

2016-10-03T15:01:00-04:00

Steven Holl is globally renowned for monumental works that specifically invoke light, color and porosity in both programmatic and aesthetic ways. Holl can also be thought of as an artist’s architect—his firm has done work for many arts institutions, he methodically sketches his projects in watercolors, and his style is heavily influenced by art practice and theory. He’s also very interested in the phenomenology of architecture—how it’s sensed by humans, and its impact on our existence.

We spoke in a totally unremarkable conference room at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, the day before Holl was scheduled to give a keynote presentation for the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture’s conference.

Listen to One-to-One #40 with Steven Holl:

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Proposals for the puzzle at the heart of Church’s vision

2016-09-05T12:47:00-04:00

Twenty-one architects and landscape architects made concept sketches for a theoretical summer house — an open-air structure sometimes known as a “folly.” It would have occupied a central spot on a grassy knoll on the southern slope that fronts the main house.

Ted Loos reviews a new exhibition, “Follies, Function & Form: Imagining Olana’s Summer House”, running through November 13th at the Coachman’s House Gallery at NY's Olana State Historic Site.

A bridge 57 years in the making, designed by Steven Holl

2016-07-20T13:32:00-04:00

In 1959, Edward Durell Stone had envisioned a pedestrian walkway connecting his unbuilt design for the Kennedy Center to the Potomac River, but it was not until this year that Steven Holl Architects gained approval for the bridge, which is part of the firm's larger expansion design for the center. The bridge will not only provide a tangible connection between the facility and the landscape, but allow opportunities to visit a cafe and view outdoor art events, including an exterior wall which will double as a site for broadcasts and simulcast performances.

“This is a joyful moment for a public space which will be shared and enjoyed by many in the future,” said Steven Holl in a press release. “After thoughtful review by these regulatory agencies, we have achieved complete approval for our Kennedy Center Expansion project and its public access to the Potomac Riverfront.”

Steven Holl designs "concave response" lighting for new visual arts building

2016-05-11T13:01:00-04:00

"We don't have a single 'style,'" Steven Holl explained in reference to his firm's new four level, 35,000 square foot Visual Arts Building commissioned for the Franklin & Marshall College. "We always try to shape a unique experience, and our approach is the same with this project. We look to create something of this place, to inspire future students."

Influenced heavily by the numerous hundred-year-old-plus trees that occupy the 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.

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.

In addition to geothermal heating and cooling, the project features an inventive, noteworthy take on lighting. In this case, the "building’s light profile is a concave r...