Brown University
Providence, RI
2005
37,500 sf affected
Goals
- Reorganize multiple floors to create a better facility for the Computer Science program at Brown.
- Improve the physical connections between floors, enhancing the sense of departmental community.
- Create spaces that are flexible and support new ways of learning.
Challenges
- Respect existing departmental boundaries and minimize physical changes.
- Work within a limited budget.
Design Response
- Master-planned the building as a whole, testing for the best fit between a complex program and the spaces available.
- Created a new interior stair that improves communication.
- Enhanced the experience of traveling on the stair by designing a vertical “gallery” around which the stair winds, displaying the department’s collection of antique computer hardware.
- Designed an open space that functions as a meeting venue, social space, lecture hall, study space, and café.
- Inserted multiple meeting/social spaces throughout the building.
- Developed a marketing brochure highlighting the architectural changes, and how they relate to academic objectives, to support fundraising efforts by the department.
Contractor
Shawmut Design and Construction
Consultants
SEi Companies
