Winter Visual Arts Centre at Franklin Marshall College – Steven Holl
On the historic campus of Franklin & Marshall College, the new Winter Visual Arts Building takes shape as a raised pavilion formed by the site’s 200-year old trees, the oldest elements of the campus. A new campus destination for all students, the building spaces aim to evoke the creative energy involved in teaching and making art.
Drawing on Franklin & Marshall College’s motto Lux et Lex the new building for the Art, Art History, and Film Department is conceived as ‘light’ in complementary/contrast to the ‘heavy’ exemplary brick architecture of the 1856 ‘Old Main’ original campus building. A gradual exterior ramp connects from Old Main’s axis to a second-floor entrance of our new building, just above a ground floor entrance facing the newly formed ‘Arts Quad’. The building activates the southern end of the campus as a new campus destination.
