Washington University in St. Louis has announced that architecture firm KieranTimberlake in Philadelphia has been chosen to design a signature building for the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. To be located immediately north of Givens Hall at the corner of Hoyt and Brookings Drives, the approximately 80,000sf, $38M building will be home to graduate architecture students and other interdisciplinary space.
Big changes are on the horizon as the school plans to completely reconfigure the east end of campus. Conceptional renderings show Brookings Drive will become a dead end, while Hoyt Drive, at the base of the steps leading to Brookings Hall, will serve as access to an underground parking facility. The School of Engineering campus to the north of Brookings Drive will continue to expand, eventually eliminating existing surface parking. Up to 900 parking spaces may be placed underground with building access below grade as well.
{Hillman Hall at The Brown School – Washington University in St. Louis by Moore Ruble Yudell}
{Hillman Hall looking east toward surface parking lot – future home of Weil Hall}
Along with the relatively forward-aesthetic of the new $47M Hillman Hall, designed by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, for the Brown School, Weil Hall will eventually frame a reimagined central green space. Moore Ruble Yudell also designed the recently completed Knight Hall & Bauer Hall for the Olin School of Business at WUSTL. Weil Hall will diverge from the pink-hued fieldstone and collegiate gothic architecture that otherwise dominates the school’s Danforth Campus. Hillman Hall is targeting LEED Platinum certification and will add just more than 100,000sf to the Brown School. Jubel Hall (mechanical engineering), currently being planned, will frame the north side of the common grounds.
KieranTimberlake has produced significant works across the world, but the 2007 Yale University Sculpture Building and School of Art Gallery may offer the firm’s best analogy to the WUSTL project. The Yale building received LEED Platinum certification and recognition for its design.
{Sculpture Building and School of Art Gallery – Yale University by KieranTimberlake}
The firm’s other projects include the United States Embassy in London, Dilworth Park in Philadelphia, Brockman Hall for Physics at Rice University, and the City Center Building at UNC-Charlotte. Although no timeline has yet been made public for the WUSTL project, it is expected to be completed by 2019.
{US Embassy – London by KieranTimberlake}
{Dilworth Park – Philadelphia by KieranTimberlake}
{Brockman Hall – Rice University by KieranTimberlake}
{Center City Building – UNC Charlotte by KieranTimberlake}
From the WUSTL announcement:
KieranTimberlake has the depth of experience, reputation, design aesthetic, commitment, specialized expertise in sustainability, and capacity to undertake Weil Hall. Critical to this project is the creation of informal meeting spaces and collaborative work spaces for the School, including developing more visible connections among programs and facilitating opportunities to interact across architecture, art, and design, as well as between graduate and undergraduate students.
During the selection process, KieranTimberlake consistently articulated a strong understanding of the vision for Weil Hall, at the same time demonstrating the energy, resources, and sophistication to address the robust scope and timeline set forth by Washington University’s plan for transforming the East Campus.
The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts is comprised of three central units:
The College of Art was founded in 1879 as the first professional, university-affiliated art school in the United States, and is the only art school to have fathered a major metropolitan art museum.
The College of Architecture was established in 1910, and has the distinction of being one of the 10 founding members of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (formerly the Washington University Gallery of Art) was founded in 1881 as the first art museum west of the Mississippi River.
