Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Washington University
1 Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis has announced the three finalists for the design of Anabeth and John Weil Hall: Architecture Research Office (ARO), KieranTimberlake, and Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects.
The comprehensive selection process will include public presentations by each firm March 23–24, 2015. The Sam Fox School will announce the architect for Weil Hall in early April. Construction of the new building is anticipated to be completed in 2019.
Finalist profiles
Architecture Research Office (ARO) is responsible for the design of numerous academic buildings, including the Barbara Greenbaum House residential college at Tulane University (2014) and the Applied Math Building at Brown University (2016). The firm also completed a meticulous renovation of the Donald Judd Home and Studio in New York (2013). Describing itself as a laboratory as much as a studio, ARO brings a thorough and inquisitive approach to projects of all scales, from the current West Pavilion addition to Nippert Stadium at the University of Cincinnati to the Princeton School of Architecture addition (2007).
Kieran Timberlake has designed many significant higher education projects—among them are the Sculpture Building and School of Art Gallery at Yale University (2007), winner of an AIA Top Ten Green award; and the Brockman Hall for Physics at Rice University (2011), winner of the 2015 AIA Institute Honor Award. Current commissions include an addition and renovation to the School of Architecture at Tulane University and the design of the new United States Embassy in London. A strong research practice within the firm allows for an innovative approach to reducing the environmental impact of its projects, from the development of custom modeling software to studies that mitigate the adverse outcomes from bird and building conflicts.
Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects has a long and diverse history of academic work, including the Yale Health Center at Yale University (2010), the Gates Center for Computer Science and Hillman Center for Future Generation Technologies at Carnegie Mellon University (2009), and the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center at Clemson University (2007). One of the firm’s iconic projects, the Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University (2004), is a study in materiality and structure, as well as the principle that a building can be simultaneously a successful place for teaching as well as an inspirational tool for learning.
About Weil Hall
Anabeth and John Weil Hall will house the Sam Fox School’s graduate programs and provide new opportunities for interdisciplinary initiatives. It will be the first new space for architecture at Washington University since the construction of Givens Hall in 1932. In addition, the facility will allow the graduate art program, which is currently housed off-site, to relocate next to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, ensuring those students are able to better contribute to and benefit from the resources, ideas, and discourse on the Danforth Campus. Weil Hall will address significant enrollment increases across the School’s graduate programs, as well as the demands of new curricular offerings and a growing body of distinguished faculty.
Weil Hall is currently envisioned as an approximately 80,000-square-foot facility with a range of traditional and experimental studios, classrooms, offices, critique and exhibition spaces, making and fabrication spaces, and social commons.
