Related Projects
Area
6,400 sf
By adding a simple volume of space at the critical juncture, the design solution created a unified campus, while also providing a much needed lounge for student gathering.
Our work included a comprehensive overhaul of the College’s dining hall, transforming it from an outdated service window to an open market with an airy light-filled dining space. Layers of accretive ceilings and mechanical systems were removed, exposing and celebrating the building’s mid-century steel trusses.
The iconic modernist building of the campus, along with the work and craft of the student artists, provided inspiration for the vision of the renovation.
Student Commons
Moore College of Art & Design
Located along the Ben Franklin Parkway among Philadelphia’s cultural institutions, the Moore College of Art and Design is a women’s college devoted to teaching art and design and educating women for lifelong learning and involvement in the visual arts. With a total enrollment of just over 400 students, the campus is dense, with students living and learning within a single city block. The iconic building of the College is the midcentury modern mini-tower where students live and work. This structure, along with the progressive nature of the College, became inspiration to draw out and enhance with a series of modernist insertions.
While the footprint of the campus is small, less than a full city block, the circulation through the spaces was disconnected, making it circuitous to get from one wing to the other, while also diminishing opportunities for students to meet and gather.