Date: Fall 2010 - Spring 2011
Location: State College, PA
Duration: 9 Months
The Institute for Arts and Humanities, currently housed in a small cottage on the Penn State Campus, sought to extend their current facilities to accommodate more scholars as well as small public functions. The current inhabitants of the cottage, the Institute for Arts and Humanities, were unhappy with much of the cottage and explicitly stated that they had no problem modifying major portions of it.
The proposed design includes three main masses: the existing cottage, a public mass for the functions, and a hybrid mass for the entries and offices. A glass box and front terrace house the more public functions, allowing pedestrians to see what activities the Institute conducts (a gesture highly approved by the vice president). The central area provides a transition between the two areas, and the cottage contains several of the same functions as before, allowing the Institute to expand naturally based on its current status.
