wang campus center

7/27/2019 Wang Campus Center

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Wang Campus Center

Mack Scogin Merrill Elam[2]


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///HistoryIn the process o choosing an architect or the campus center at

Wellesley College, the school administrators asked the short-

listed rms not or conceptual sketches o proposed structures,

but instead or analyses o potential sites. The emphasis onlandscape instead o buildings might seem unusual, butat Wellesley, a passion or its 450-acre campus--a wooded ter-

rain o rolling hills, gentle plateaus, and fat meadows along the

northern edge o Lake Waban--dates to the schools ounding in

the 1870s. In 1902, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., as a consultant

to the college, wrote a lengthy letter describing the campus as

not merely beautifulbut with a marked individual char-

acternot represented so ar as I know on the grounds o any

other college in the country. The letter, urging the administra-tors to respect the exceedingly intricate and complex topog-

raphy by building along ridges rather than across meadows,

would prooundly aect Wellesleys physical development.

The latest evidence o Olmsteds benecial infu-

ence is the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center.

Designed by the Atlanta rm oMack Scogin Merrill Elam

Architects, the 50,000-square-oot building rises on an es-carpment overlooking a cattail-lled meadow that slopes down

to the lake--a setting the great landscape architect would sure-ly have approved. Moreover, as Mack Scogin, AIA, explains,

the Olmstedian philosophy and its particular meaning at this

womens college west o Boston have inormed not just the

buildings placement, but also its design. Wellesley has al-

ways rejected the idea o imposing any abstract or geometric

order on the land, says Scogin. Theyve chosen instead to

value the natural and the irregular. As a result, you come to

understand this campus neither easily nor quickly, but gradu-

ally, as you meander along its paths and tramp its hills andvalleys. And so, Scogin adds, Our idea was to embody in

this project the values o the landscape--to make a place that

draws you in, a place that you discover slowly, over time.[3+4]


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We believe it will be important and very

wonderful for all members of the Collegesdiverse community to have a common spacein which we can all come together. We are de-

lighted to help create a building that will facil-itate the creation of the strong bonds amongstudents, faculty, colleagues, and alumnaethat are one of the hallmarks of WellesleyCollege.

-- Lulu Wang 66

[1]


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(form?)

The architects focus on a process of discovery resonated with Wellesleys leaders, who en-

visioned the buildings program as open-ended and evolving. The clients admit that theywere clearer about what they did not want than what they did: They did not want to pan-der to national campus-consumerist trends with a building devoted to cappuccino androck-climbing walls. As Wellesley president Diana Chapman Walsh notes, We didnt want

a place that was more about marketing than about enhancing campus life. Ultimately, thecollege leaders decided on a nonprescriptive program: The center would house the studentpost ofce, a bookstore, and other spaces where the entire community could socialize. We

didnt want any group to feel it owned the center, says Patricia M. Byrne, vice president

for administration and planning. The Wang is for everyone at Wellesley.[1+3]


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(form?)

[1]


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Structure

[1]


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How it works!

For the most part the load is distributed through bearing walls and cantilevers. Angled wideange beams pierce

the lower structure as a result of their being a part of a large geometric roof light scoop. I would also suspect theyhelp with the buildings rigidity. It would seem that these angeled pieces may serve a more complex part of thestructure, but I feel their main purpose is to stabilize the light scoop, since it is essentially acting as a verticle can-

tilever. While this building forms some rather crazy geometric shapes, it seems that for the most part (especiallyfrom the section) that structurally they peice together like a rather standard building, sans the angeled roof scoops.

Yellow

=Load

[3]


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Examples

Bearing Wall

Cantilever

AngeledWidefange


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Construction/Details

[1]


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11/12(done)[4]


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Bibliography

Images[1] http://www.wellesley.edu/AdminandPlanning/CampusProjects/index.html[2] http://www.ickr.com/photos/darajan/

[3] Mack Scogin Merrill Elam angles its architecture toward the landscape andculture of Wellesley with the idiosyncratic WANG CAMPUS CENTER Arch. Recordissue 7 2006[4] http://www.msmearch.com

Words

[3] See Above

[5] http://www.wellesley.edu/WangCampusCenter/

wang campus center

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