ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN
LEERS WEINZAPFEL ASSOCIATES
Established in 1982, Boston-based Leers Weinzapfel Associates is a practice recognized for its exceptional quality of design for the public realm in complex urban and campus contexts. The group’s special strength is the ability to meet extraordinarily difficult building challenges with uncommon design clarity, elegance, and refinement.
From the beginning, our work has been intentionally public in nature and attitude. We are committed to providing meaningful spaces for human interaction and to promoting social wellbeing. Our goal is to create bold and refined architecture for the educational realm. Work of the firm encompasses a diversity of project types, from technically demanding infrastructure installations and advanced learning and living environments for educational institutions, to prominent civic buildings and economical community recreation centers. Underlying each design concept is a clear commitment to the wise use of resources and a sustainable future. Leers Weinzapfel is an adopter of the AIA 2030 Commitment that evaluates the impact design decisions have on a project’s energy performance with the goal to reach net zero design by 2030.
In 2007, the American Institute of Architects honored us with the Firm Award, the highest distinction the AIA bestows on an architecture practice, the first woman-owned firm to be so honored. Since 2015 ARCHITECT Magazine included the firm on its annual list of Top 50 architecture firms in the country.
OUR CORE VALUES
Focused on the human experience.
We are dedicated to architecture which supports social and physical well-being and connects people to people and people to place.
Grounded in place.
We practice site driven design, weaving together building and landscape, building and urban fabric.
Devoted to the art of building.
We delight in both traditional craft and digital technology, touching the senses through material, detail, and light.
Invested in a sustainable future.
We lead in innovative timber construction development and ultra-high-performance glass systems design.
Inspired by a tailor-made process. We seek a made-to-measure project vision unique to each purpose and place.
UMass Amherst Design Building
Devoted to the art of building
Davis Center, WIlliams College
Center for Engineering, Innovation & Sciences, Wentworth Institute of Technology
ANDREA P. LEERS FAIA
PRINCIPAL
EDUCATION
M. Arch: Grad School of Fine Arts University of Pennsylvania
Bachelor of Arts: Wellesley College
REGISTRATIONS
Architecture: MA: 2828
AIA: 30001921
Other Licenses: NJ, CT, ME, NC
NCARB Certified
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA)
Principal and Co-founder of Leers Weinzapfel Associates in Boston MA, Andrea Leers is an internationally recognized leader in urban, campus and civic design. Andrea has led many of the firm’s award-winning renovation projects including complex transformations at Harvard University’s Farkas Hall, Harvard Science Center, and Dartmouth College’s Anonymous Hall. She has led the pioneering design of mass timber for academic buildings that incorporate community collaboration spaces, including the widely acclaimed John W. Olver Design Building at UMass Amherst, and Adohi Hall, a Residential, Living Learning space for the University of Arkansas. Her approach to designing in the ensemble results in buildings of individual presence which simultaneously address campus site and circulation issues.
Andrea is the former Director of the Master in Urban Design Program and Adjunct Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 2001 to 2011. Previously she taught at Yale, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. She was Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, and Chaire des Amériques at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. Her several national research grants include a NEA/Japan US Friendship Commission Design Arts Fellowship. Her recent book ‘Welcoming the West: Japan’s Grand Resort Hotels’ was published in 2017 by Jovis Verlag Berlin. She is former Chair of the Mayor’s Boston Civic Design Commission and former member of the University of Washington Architectural Commission, and current member of Harvard University Design Advisory Pool.
SELECTED EXPERIENCE
Harvard University Science Center Expansion & Renovations
(In association with Maki and Associates) Cambridge, MA
MIT Media Lab Cambridge, MA
UNC Fedex Global Education Center Chapel Hill, NC
Anonymous Hall Dartmouth College Hanover, NH LEED Gold
John W. Olver Design Building University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA LEED GOLD
Adohi Hall University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR LEED v4 Certification (tracking)
Zachs Hillel House Trinity College Hartford CT
Harvard Science Center Expansion & Renovations
Adohi Hall, University of Arkansas
JANE WEINZAPFEL FAIA
PRINCIPAL
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Architecture
University of Arizona
Honorary M. Arch, Boston Architectural College
REGISTRATIONS
Architecture: MA #2909 AZ, CT, OH, NH, NJ, PA
NCARB Certified AIA # 30019291
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA)
As Principal and Co-founder of Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Jane is a nationally recognized leader in building for campus infrastructure, urban design, education and civic institutions.
She has special expertise in award-winning energy infrastructure and transportation design, including the University of Pennsylvania Gateway Complex Chiller Plant Phases I & II; the Princeton University Precinct Plan, Thermal Energy Storage, and Chiller Plant Expansion; the Ohio State University East Regional Chilled Water Plant; the Tufts University Central Energy Plant; University of Massachusetts Amherst North Chiller Plant, and the Harvard University District Energy Facility and Thermal Energy Storage.
Jane is Principal in Charge for the recently completed Ohio University Chilled Water Plant #3, A Program and Precinct study for the new Bernard Chilled Water Plant and associated future Power Plant Siting for the University of North Carolina, and a Thermal Energy Storage and Geothermal Energy Exchange Center siting and Master Plan Study at UMass Amherst.
SELECTED EXPERIENCE
Chilled Water Infrastructure Expansion University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC
North Chiller Plant
University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA
District Energy Facility
Harvard University Allston, MA
Chilled Water Plant #3 Ohio University Athens, OH
Campus Energy Plant
Tufts University Medford, MA
Oak & Laurel Halls
University of Connecticut Storrs, CT LEED GOLD
District Energy Facility, Harvard University
Oak & Laurel Halls, University of Connecticut
JOSIAH STEVENSON FAIA, LEED AP
PRINCIPAL
EDUCATION
Master of Architecture
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Bachelor of Arts Dartmouth College
REGISTRATIONS
Architecture: MA #7486
AIA: 30075936
Other Licenses: NH, RI, VT, ME, NY, MD
NCARB Certified, LEED AP BD+C
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA)
While at Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Josiah has developed an expertise with academic and community projects as well as complex renovations and additions to many building types. Recent completed projects include the complex gut renovation of an historic train station in Lowell, MA, that inserted a modern state of the art 175 seat theater, a 100 seat recital hall and a dance studio into a very complex restructuring and rebuilt historic exterior. This project required careful examinations of existing facilities to best meet the needs of the users.
Mr. Stevenson is LEED certified, integrating a sustainable design approach into all his projects. He founded the firm’s Green Committee and is very interested in how a building affects its environment. His recent projects have been or are projected to be certified high achieving LEED Certification. He was Principal in Charge of the LEED Gold and near net zero academic building at Dartmouth College and Principal of the first major Mass Timber academic building in the country and LEED Gold Olver Design Building at UMass Amherst.
Active in the Boston Society of Architects, Josiah was the organization’s 2017 President and held the position of Commissioner of Design. He has taught or been a visiting critic at several area schools.
SELECTED EXPERIENCE
Penn Park University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA
Anonymous Hall Dartmouth College Hanover, NH
LEED Gold Near NET ZERO
John W. Olver Design Building University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA LEED GOLD
Center for Engineering, Innovation & Sciences, Wentworth Institute of Technology Boston, MA
LEED Certifiable
Franklin County Justice Center Greenfield, MA LEED GOLD
School of Public Health & Health Sciences HUB, University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA LEED GOLD (tracking)
Anonymous Hall, Dartmouth College Center for Engineering, Innovation & Sciences, Wentworth Institute of Technology, WIT
ASHLEY RAO AIA, LEED AP PHIUS CPHC
PRINCIPAL
EDUCATION
Master of Architecture
Yale University
AB, History & Literature
Harvard University
REGISTRATIONS
Architecture: MA #7951226
AIA: 38646975
Other Licenses: NJ
NCARB Certified
LEED AP Phius CPHC
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Institute of Architects (AIA)
A firm leader with over 15 years of experience, Ashley is a thoughtful designer and exceptional communicator. She is attuned to client’s concerns and deft in coordinating consultant teams for complex projects. She is equally able to articulate design concepts and to engage challenging construction issues. Her skills include versatility in managing diverse programming, planning, and renovation/expansion projects, complex technical additions, and large-scale new construction.
Ashley’s collaborative design sensibility is motivated by a deep commitment to sustainable design principles and enthusiasm for community building. A thoughtful listener and gifted communicator, she excels in cultivating productive, synergistic relationships with clients and leads by example in fostering a supportive team environment.
Ashley’s recent work includes the nationally-recognized Adohi Hall at the University of Arkansas, the first large-scale mass timber student residence hall, and the Davis Center at Williams College. Adohi Hall was honored with the national AIA Housing Award. The Davis Center promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus, and is designed to the rigorous performance standards of the Living Building Challenge.
A graduate of Harvard University with a master’s degree in architecture from Yale University, Ashley received the James Gamble Rogers Memorial Fellowship for exceptional skill in design and the Sonia albert Schimberg Prize for outstanding academic performance.
SELECTED EXPERIENCE
North Campus Conceptual Planning Study, Dartmouth College Hanover, NH
LEED Gold, Near Net Zero
John W. Olver Design Building
University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA
LEED GOLD
Franklin County Justice Center, Greenfield, MA LEED GOLD
Adohi Hall University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR
LEED Silver v4
Davis Center Renovation & Addition Williams College Williamstown, MA
Living Building Challenge Petal Certification (tracking)
School of Public Health & Health Sciences HUB, University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA
LEED GOLD (tracking)
Davis Center, Williams College
Adohi Hall, University of Arkansas
TOM CHUNG FAIA, LEED AP, BD+C
PRINCIPAL
EDUCATION
Master of Architecture, Harvard University
Graduate School of Design
Bachelor of Science in Architecture, University of Virginia
REGISTRATIONS
Architecture: MA # 20041
AIA: 30279610
Other Licenses: AL, AR, CT, MT, NJ, NY, SC, VA, NCARB Certified LEED AP BD+C
Tom is a dynamic design leader with over 25 years with the firm and has extensive experience in sustainability on higher education projects, working with multiple stakeholders and specialized consultants on highly technical projects. Tom is also a national leader in the practice and education of Mass Timber Design. He has led the firm’s design for the Adohi Hall Student Housing at University of Arkansas and John W. Olver Design Building at UMass Amherst, among the most advanced and sustainable mass timber building in the US. He has been invited to speak on sustainability, low embodied carbon and mass timber at conferences and seminars world-wide including Canada, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Peru, South Korea and throughout the US and has shared his extensive knowledge and experience with his peers through numerous AIA continuing education workshops and webinars.
Tom is currently a Professor of Practice in Architecture focusing on sustainability and mass timber education and research at Auburn University in Alabama and a Board member of WoodWorks, a national non-profit educational organization promoting wood as a sustainable building material.
SELECTED EXPERIENCE
John W. Olver Design Building UMass Amherst Amherst, MA
LEED GOLD
Center for Engineering, Innovation and Sciences, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA
LEED Silver v4 Certifiable
Kreher Preserve & Nature Center Environmental Education Building Auburn University, Auburn, AL
Adohi Hall Student Housing University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR
LEED Silver v4
Computing and Information Science Building, Cornell University Ithaca, NY
LEED GOLD (tracking)
(Est. Completion June 2025)
Oak & Laurel Halls University of Connecticut Storrs, CT
LEED GOLD
John W. Olver Design Building, UMass Amherst Environmental Education Building, KPNC, Auburn University
“For architects, their true skill set is to pull every sqaure inch and throw it at the question. That’s what I try to teach my students – spatial intelligence. Our architects collected every extra square foot that they met our highest aspirations. Every time I walk by here, that’s what I think about. Now those spaces are filled all day, every day. When I walked in the building the first day and saw students sitting on this ledge here talking, I practically cried. ”
— Caryn Brause, Assistant Professor, Architecture
John W. Olver Design Building, UMass Amherst
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
JOHN W. OLVER DESIGN BUILDING
Amherst, MA
Bringing together multiple departments, the John W. Olver Design Building is a dynamic space for exchange, collaboration and experimentation, and the embodiment of a shared commitment to innovation and sustainability.
Bringing together multiple departments studying the built environment, the John W. Olver Design Building is a dynamic space of exchange, collaboration, and experimentation, and the embodiment of a shared commitment to sustainability.
The John W. Olver Design Building is a place of multidisciplinary teaching, research and collaboration, anchored around a multi-story skylit commons for both for social and formal gatherings and presentations. Held above the commons by a mass timber zipper truss, a courtyard roof garden integrates nature with building to provide a place of rest and contemplation as well as group events such as outdoor classrooms and evening receptions. The sloping site elevates the building to make for a tall four-story western face to the campus mall, addressing the larger scale buildings to the west. Facing a series of smaller historic buildings along Stockbridge Way, the three story eastern facade fits comfortably into this context. An innovative mass timber structure showcases wood as a renewable and sustainable resource. Its low carbon footprint is critical to ensuring a building with low embodied energy. The building is also a highly visible demonstration of sustainable design practices. It is the first large-scale cross laminated timber (CLT) academic building in the US. The highly efficient envelope is paired with mechanical equipment zoned for maximum efficiency and including radiant flooring and chilled beams for energy savings. Daylight to the building’s interior is optimized to significantly reduce artificial lighting energy. Roof runoff directed through a sculptural scupper becomes a “spring source” at the top of the site. The water is filtered through aseries of successive bio-swales and timber dams to the lower end of the site and eventually back to the Connecticut River.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
• Design within campus context
• Central Commons Gathering Area
• LEED Gold, Highly Sustainable Project, Mass Timber Construction
AWARDS
15+ Awards Including:
AIA Architecture Award, 2023
AIA Education Facility Design Award, 2022
AIA COTE Top Ten Award, 2020
AIA New England Merit Award, 2019
SCUP Excellence AwardsMerit Excellence in Landscape Architecture for General Design 2018
World Architecture News Awards - Sustainable Buildings 2018
WoodWorks Wood Design Awards - Jury’s Choice for Wood Innovation 2018
Chicago Athenaeum - American Architecture Award 2018
Chicago Athenaeum - Green Good Design Award 2018
World Architecture NewsSustainable Buildings 2018
PROJECT TYPE
Higher EducationNew Construction
PROJECT AREA
87,000gsf
SUSTAINABILITY
LEED Gold
SCHEDULE
Completed 2017
KEY TEAM
Tom Chung, Principal, Project Manager Ashley Rao, Architect
Roof terrace
Cafe
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS ADOHI HALL
Fayetteville,
AR
“The innovative design and materials demonstrated the university’s commitment to environmental sustainability and to the potentials of value-added responsible economic development for the state’s primary natural resource. The state of Arkansas has over 19 million acres of forest making more than half of the state forested. In 2011, 64,789 jobs in the state where related to the forest products industry.”
— Florence Johnson, Former Assistant ViceChancellor, University Housing University of Arkansas
Adohi Hall is the first large-scale mass timber residence hall and living learning setting and was largest cross laminated timber (CLT) building in the United States at its completion in 2019.
Leers Weinzapfel led a design collaborative including Modus Studio (Fayetteville, AR), Mackey Mitchell Architects (St. Louis), and OLIN (Philadelphia), in the realization of this new campus gateway project. The 202,027-square-foot Adohi Hall creates a new residential college with emphasis on a creative live learn environment within a relaxed, informal, tree-lined landscape that re-conceptualizes university housing.
Located at the southern edge of the campus, the project comprises a vibrant new destination with retail dining, classrooms, maker-spaces, performance spaces, communal spaces, administrative offices, and faculty housing, along with a mix of semi-suites and pods totaling 708 beds, intended primarily for sophomore students.
A series of interconnected buildings arranged in a sinuous, serpentine configuration set in a forested landscape provides a variety of communal outdoor spaces that offer a sustainable way of re-imagining campus housing in contrast to traditional housing on the campus quad. Other important sustainability initiatives include a significant reduction of the project’s carbon footprint by incorporating advanced timber technologies, using Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) panels and glulam beams and columns for the buildings’ structure.
The project is part of a larger precinct Master Plan, also envisioned by Leers Weinzapfel, which looks at this entire southeastern boundary of the campus as a potential site for future housing, parking, and a network of pedestrian campus pathways to accommodate future growth of the university.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
• Sustainable Design, LEED Silver V.4, Mass Timber Construction
• Community Gathering
AWARDS
20+ Awards Including:
SCUP/AIA-CAE Excellence in Architecture Award, Honor, 2024
Chicago Athenaeum & Global Design News - Future House International Residential Award, 2023
Chicago Athenaeum Green Good Design Award, 2022
AIA Housing Award, 2021
Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award, 2021
BSA Sustainability Award, 2021, Award
BSA Housing Design Award, 2021, Citation
Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Award, 2020
Wood Design & Building Honor Award, 2020
WoodWorks Multi-Family Wood Design Award, 2020
PROJECT TYPE
Higher EducationNew Construction
PROJECT AREA
202,027gsf
SUSTAINABILITY
LEED Silver V.4
SCHEDULE
Completed 2019
KEY TEAM
Tom Chung, Principal Ashley Rao, Project Manager
Building Entry with Cabin and Passage beyond
Central
Gathering Space
WILLIAMS COLLEGE DAVIS CENTER
Williamstown,
MA
“The goal of creating a both socially and technically connected building system is valuable and shows an alignment, again, with student interests in the project’s relationship to land and the surrounding environment. Approaches to healthy materials and building systems were clearly articulated, as was the responsible approach to water management. Aesthetically, the building’s inventive form and response to context are well considered.”
— 2023 BSA Awards Jury
The Davis Center manifests the enduring impact of student advocacy for social justice and inclusive community at Williams College. Tracing its roots to 1969 campus protests, the renovated and expanded Center reopened in 2024 as a hub of programs and spaces supporting historically underrepresented communities and advancing campus engagement with complex issues of identity, history and culture.
The reimagined 25,800 sf Davis Center is a unified complex with a major new addition nestled between the existing, beloved Rice and Jenness Houses. A central public plaza unites the three buildings, bounded by a winding riverine bioswale defining the edge of the Davis Center precinct. The project carves a new universally accessible path down to Walden Street and establishes a new public entrance facing Spring Street, reaching out past campus edges to connect to Williamstown beyond.
The new addition reflects the domestic scale of neighboring Rice and Jenness Houses, but with an open, transparent ground floor that acts as a civic invitation to broad campus engagement. A dynamic folded roofscape references the peaks and valleys of the mountain ranges that surround the College. The addition is clad in charred wood, a symbolic celebration of the community’s resilience in the face of struggle and adversity.
The Davis Center is net-zero operational carbon and net-zero embodied carbon, incorporating fossil-fuel free systems, deepenergy retrofit strategies, adaptive reuse of existing buildings, low-carbon wood structure, purchased carbon offsets, and Red List-free materials. Pursuing Living Building Challenge Petal Certification, the Davis Center is a bold and vivid expression of Williams’ commitment to cultivating a community that is socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
• Sustainable Design, Living Building, Mass Timber
• Community gathering spaces
AWARDS
Chicago Athenaeum – Green
Good Design Award, Winner, 2025
A’N Best of Design Awards, 2024 - Honorable Mention, Social Impact
Built Design Award, Winner in Architectural DesignInstitutional, 2024
BSA Unbuilt Planning & Design Award: Planning, Impact, 2023
Engineering News-Record New England, 2024 Best Projects, Award of Merit – Higher Education/Research
PROJECT TYPE
Higher EducationRenovation & Addition
PROJECT AREA
25,770 gsf
SUSTAINABILITY
Living Building Challenge
SCHEDULE
Completed 2024
KEY TEAM
Ashley Rao, Principal
Tom Chung, Principal
Campus Context
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
ANONYMOUS HALL
Hanover, NH
“The Leers Weinzapfel planning of and design for the renovation of Dana Hall truly creates a silk purse from a sow’s ear. It transforms the previously hidden north end of campus and, for the first time, generates a visual and physical connection with the central campus. The project is a stunning success on all levels.”
- John Scherding
Former Associate VP of Planning, Design & Construction, Dartmouth College.
Anonymous Hall reuses and adds to a vacant 1960s library in the heart of the medical school quad, transforming it into a vibrant administrative and social center for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a communal hub for the north campus. Part of a wider campus renewal plan, metrics show the project is close to net zero energy use.
Centrally located among 1960s medical school buildings on Dartmouth’s north campus, the 32,995-square foot project— which also includes new entrances for surrounding buildings, a wide pedestrian bridge, and new circulation between buildings—transforms an isolated edge of the College into a well-scaled, inviting North Quad. The initiative generates an accessible, seamless link between north campus and the historic green and main campus, allowing it to be shared with undergraduate sciences.
The demolition of an unused laboratory adjacent to the former Dana Hall made way for an addition, which reorients the building to create inviting campus connections to the south. Now the new social center of north campus, the addition houses the lobby and a café with an adjacent terrace overlooking a green. Tied together by a spiral object stair visible from the south lawn, the building’s upper floors contain collegial faculty offices, classrooms, and places for interactive student gathering. The rooftop level features a solar paneled canopy and a south-facing planted terrace that overlooks the Vermont hills, Baker Tower, and the iconic main campus. The walk-out graduate student lounge in the lower level opens to a protected courtyard below a pedestrian bridge.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
• Highly sustainable, low energy use intensity - LEED Gold
• Natural light in all habitable spaces
• Common social spaces: cafe, lounge, and roof deck
AWARDS
Built Design Award, Honorable
Mention in Architectural Design / Educational, 2024
AIA Education Facility Design, Merit Award, 2024
Fast Company Innovation By Design, 2022, Sustainability, Honorable Mention
Chicago Athenaeum Green Good Design Award, 2022
Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards, 2022, Honorable Mention
The Plan Awards, 2022, Finalist, Education
WAN Awards Glass in Architecture Finalist, 2021
World Architects Building of the Year Finalist, 2021
Retrofit Metamorphosis Award, First Place in “Addition”, 2021
The Plan Awards - Finalist, Education, 2021
DNA Paris Awards - Winner, Architecture/Educational & Sports, 2021
PROJECT TYPE
Renovation and Addition
PROJECT AREA
34,372 gsf
SUSTAINABILITY
LEED Gold
Near Net Zero
SCHEDULE
Completed 2020
KEY TEAM
Ashley Rao, Architect
Campus connection
Roof terrace
WENTWORTH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
CENTER FOR ENGINEERING, INNOVATION AND SCIENCES
Boston, MA
“Our core values embrace a culture of innovation and creativity as well as transformational educational experiences. The new Center for Engineering, Innovation and Sciences is the embodiment of the mission goals.”
— David A. Wahlstrom
Vice President for Business, Wentworth Institute of Technology
The Center for Engineering, Innovation, and Sciences provides a home for the next evolution in the collegiate study of multiple engineering disciplines. As the Institute’s program transitions from engineering technology to engineering and innovation, this four-story, 75,000-square-foot building comprises a dynamic environment for multi-disciplinary collaboration among students of biology, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, and biological engineering.
The Center is located on a midblock site at the heart of the Institute’s urban campus and plays a pivotal role in the campus plan. The building acts as a filter between two sides of the extended campus—the quad and the city—and strengthens the pedestrian pike that links them.
The ground floor of the building is a transparent showcase that contains Accelerate, an interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial project-based program, and a high-end additive manufacturing lab. Stepped seating in an adjacent public gathering area invites students and visitors to experience first-hand displays of Wentworth’s engineering capabilities. Simply zoned, the building contains entries and offices along the pike. Floors two through four comprise laboratories, student learning and group meeting spaces, offices, and support/storage space. A light, perforated metal veil draped over the volumes gives the Center a distinctive identity in the surrounding context of masonry buildings.
Intended to be a visible demonstration of sustainable design, the Center incorporates enhanced metering for the Institute’s use and student demonstration. The building is designed to be LEED Silver Certifiable under LEED v.4.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
• Campus connection in a prominant site location
• Natural light in all habitable spaces
AWARDS
The Plan Awards, 2022 - Finalist, Education
Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award, 2021
AIA New England DesignCitation 2019
BSA Higher Education Design Awards, 2021 - Award
The Plan Awards- Education Finalist 2021
DNA Paris Awards - Winner, Architecture/Educational & Sports, 2021
The Plan Awards - Education Finalist 2020
IFMA Boston Awards of Excellence, 2019
AGCMA Build New England Honor Award, 2019
The Plan Awards - Shortlisted 2019
ENR New England’s - Best Projects Award of Merit
Higher Education/Research & Excellence in Safety Best Project 2019
PROJECT TYPE
New Construction
PROJECT AREA
75,000gsf
SUSTAINABILITY
LEED v. 4 SIlver Certifiable SCHEDULE Completed 2019
KEY TEAM
Chung, Principal
Tom
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
OAK & LAUREL HALLS
Storrs, CT
“The project successfully fulfilled the early program intention by providing 40high-tech general Registrar classrooms and by maximizing the remaining space for Humanities and Social Sciences departments to the degree that could be provided within the fixed budget. Feedback from faculty, staff, students, and administration has been very positive.”-
— Brian Gore PE, Director, Design and Engineering SVCS-Capital Projects
Designed as an ensemble, Oak & Laurel Halls create a dense campus center and reinforce the central pedestrian crossroads of Fairfield and Academic Way. Together, the two buildings constitute a new home for the social science departmental offices and teaching spaces. Their forms are inflected to shape pedestrian movement and landscape spaces, and both buildings share a common palette of materials- copper and brickto contribute to a more coherent campus center.
Laurel Hall is organized around an interior public area, a light-filled central atrium. Two large lecture halls occupy a compact copperwrapped volume with an extensively planted green roof. Across the atrium, smaller classrooms are stacked in a three-story brick volume that defines the Main Quadrangle. Student seating and waiting space is provided near all classrooms at every level.
Diagonally across Fairfield Way, the two L-shaped wings of Oak Hall create an exterior public space comprised of two interconnected courtyards and maximize perimeter office space. A 200 person day-lit lecture hall and large classrooms occupy the ground level; students and faculty interact in the public galleries surrounding the courtyards. The three upper floors accommodate seminar rooms, faculty and research offices, and specialized teaching spaces. Copper lines the inner courtyards, while brick defines the outer facades.
The two buildings are tied together by a sustainable landscape and resonate with each other in massing, form, and material. Sustainable strategies include bioswales, permeable paving, and native plantings to provide water management and conservation. Oak & Laurel Halls have achieved LEED Gold certification.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
• Campus connection in a prominant site location
• Natural light in all habitable spaces
AWARDS
AIA New England Design
Awards, Merit (Institutional) Copper in Architecture 2015
AIA Connecticut, Honor Award, 2013
BSA Education Hobson Award, 2013
BSLA Merit Award, 2013
CTGBC Alexion Award of Excellence, 2012
CTGBC Honor Award, Institutional, 2012
The Chicago Athenaeum /American Architecture Award, 2012
PROJECT TYPE
Higher EducationNew Constructon
PROJECT AREA
Oak Hall: 132,030 gsf
Laurel Hall: 68,370 gsf
SUSTAINABILITY
LEED Gold
SCHEDULE
Completed: Oak: 2012
Laurel: 2011
KEY TEAM
Tom Chung, Principal
Aerial View of Laurel Hall
View of Oak Hall with connecting campus passage
Central Stair at Laurel Hall
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTER
Auburn, AL
“This project is exciting because of how it allows for a design that places children and their caregivers deeply within nature while adhering to the look and actual material of that surrounding environment. The project goals are clearly articulated and evident in the aesthetics from building massing down to the details described.”
-2023 BSA Awards Jury
Nestled within the 120-acre tract of the Kreher Preserve and Nature Center, the new education facility promotes wonder and exploration of the natural world and cultivates a sense of stewardship toward our community and environment.
Imagined as an extension of the network of trails throughout the preserve, the preschool is organized along a central “learning trail” spine. Light-filled classroom spaces alternate with a series of open and covered porches that open out into the natural woodlands beyond.
The butterfly roof structure and operable windows allow for ample daylight and natural ventilation in appropriate seasons to increase sustainable, lower energy operation of the building. Biophilic design principles reinforce the connection to nature, with exposed local yellow pine throughout, and direct outdoor views in all spaces. Consistent with the mission of the Kreher Nature Preserve, all storm–water will be managed naturally on site. Potable water use is significantly reduced through grey water management, with rainwater collected from the butterfly roofs and used for flushing toilets.
Constructed from timber harvested on-site, the education facility celebrates the potential of wood – aesthetically, economically, and environmentally. The preschool will incorporate cross laminated timber (CLT) produced in nearby Dothan, Alabama with loblolly pine from the site as a demonstration of this new, sustainable building product with great potential for Alabama’s forestry-based industries. Exposed natural wood ceilings, walls, floors and open decks make sustainable forestry a tangible part of this outdoor based school experience. The building will be supported on wood piles, avoiding the use of concrete and further minimizing the embodied carbon of the project.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
• Natural light in all habitable spaces
• Sustainable, Mass Timber Construction
AWARDS
Chicago Athenaeum – Green
Good Design Award, Winner, 2025
BSA Unbuilt Planning & Design Award: Planning, Merit, 2023
World Architecture News, 2022 - Gold Winner, Future Education
PROJECT TYPE
Higher Education - New Construction
PROJECT AREA
4,989sf
SCHEDULE
Completed 2024
KEY TEAM
Tom Chung, Principal
Multi-purpose event space
ZACHS HILLEL HOUSE
Hartford, CT
“The fact that the building is here gives us the possibility to respond to what’s going on in our world, both locally and internationally, and to what’s going on in Israel, I would love for this to be the site of all kinds of community service programs in the future.”
— Lisa Kassow, director of Hillel, as quoted in Trinity Reporter, 2002
The new Hillel House at Trinity College provides Jewish students, the campus, and the community with the educational, social, cultural, and their religious resources to explore and celebrate the Jewish identity. The site for the Hillel House is a long narrow parcel between two existing houses on the boundary between the campus center and the adjacent residential neighborhood. It is approached from the campus on one side and from the neighborhood on the other.
Conceived as part of the ensemble of campus and neighborhood, the building form is a slender rectilinear block, similar in footprint to the existing houses, with a main entry facing the campus, and a secondary entry facing the neighborhood street. The building’s gabled roof has a diagonal ridge so that it is asymmetrical and distinctly public in scale on the campus side, and centered to echo residential rooflines facing the neighborhood. The exterior of cedar, glass, and warm colored limestone enclose two stories of activity rooms and supporting spaces. The most actively used spaces- Dining Room on the first floor and the Function Room with a lofty ceiling on the second floor- face the campus. Quieter activites- an intimate Living Room on the first floor and a spacious Library on the second- face the street. At the center of the house, a full kosher kitchen, meeting, and office spaces support the large room activities.
With its dynamic roofline and openness of its main rooms, the house welcomes Jewish students and the Trinity community, and creates a positive and energetic presence in the surrounding neighborhood.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
• Student spaces
• Community gathering spaces
PROJECT AREA
8,000 sf
SCHEDULE
Completed 2002
KEY TEAM
Tom Chung, Design Team
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUETTS AMHERST
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH SCIENCES HUB
Amherst, MA
“The new SPHHS Hub will be a modern, inspiring building designed to serve as the heart of our School, providing a dedicated space for students to come together, find their campus home, and enhance their experience of belonging to UMass...The architecture will incorporate natural elements—such as abundant natural light, organic materials, and shapes inspired by nature—creating an environment that fosters well-being, reduces stress, and enhances emotional resilience.”
— SPHHS Dean Anna Maria Siega-Riz
The HUB creates a unified gathering place for the dispersed School of Public Health & Health Sciences (SPHHS) – a new core where students can learn, collaborate, access support and advising services, and foster a stronger sense of community.
One of the most important and growing schools at the University of Massachusetts, SPHHS is a national leader in finding ways to improve public health and quality of life for all, with a focus on reducing inequities. The 26,800 sf Hub will house team-based learning classrooms, seminar rooms, collaboration spaces, advising offices and at its core, a school-wide Commons space that overlooks and engages with the exterior entry plaza.
The new building connects with the 1958 Totman Gymnasium, now home to the SPHHS Department of Kinesiology. A large plaza between the new and existing buildings opens to the main campus to the south; its form anticipates future campus expansion. A wildflower lined bioretention system, designed with a series of weirs and spillways, daylights stormwater run-off, minimizing underground pipes and cisterns.
To enter, the visitor passes through the shaded plaza, past the glazed commons and into a link connecting the Gym and the Hub. Mass timber structure and a grand wood stair highlight the warm, inviting Commons space intended for student touchdown and study spaces, along with school-wide gathering events. Adjacent classrooms are varied in size with moveable wall partitions to support flexible use.
The high-performance exterior envelope takes cues from the material palette of the adjacent Totman building. The ground floor is clad in warm-toned metal panels, while the upper floors utilize light-colored brick in a deeply textured pattern, referencing the limestone pilasters that define the Totman entry. Bird-friendly triple-glazing is used throughout, with deep vertical fins providing passive sun and glare control in the glazed Commons area.
The building design addresses key public health priorities, encouraging pedestrian movement, providing access to natural light, and promoting connections with the outdoors. Recognizing the impact of environmental chemicals on public health, the building material selection minimizes the use of plastics and emphasizes Red List Free products. In alignment with UMass’ Carbon Zero Plan, the Hub incorporates net-zero-ready, all-electric systems. With a pEUI of 25 kBTU/sf, the SPHHS Hub is on track to exceed AIA 2030 Commitment targets with an 85% reduction from baseline energy use.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
• Open gathering spaces for students
• Couseling Services
PROJECT AREA
26,729sf
SUSTAINABILITY
LEED Gold (Tracking)
SCHEDULE
Est. Completion December 2025
KEY TEAM
Ashley Rao, Principal
Kitchenette
View from Commons with Doors Open
View of South East Plaza
