VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS, CROWLEY FACULTY CENTER | Montpelier VT | 3,780 GSF
2016 | Susan T. Rodriguez (Design Partner, Ennead Architects)
The Vermont College of Fine Arts provides a unique and innovative educational structure, offering a low-residency Masters Program in a wide range of Arts related disciplines, including creative writing, film, children’s book writing, visual arts and musical composition. Transforming an historic college campus to reveal a vibrant community for the arts and to accommodate the cyclical residency of students and faculty in an intensive and immersive academic environment inspired the design team’s process for the master planning effort. The Crowley Center is the first new building developed under the master plan, flanking the historic College Hall and College Green and strategically located between two houses previously converted to faculty residences. The Center provides additional bedrooms for the low-residency model, with a shared common space to foster creative interchange and a sense of community. In keeping with the scale and character of the surrounding residential neighborhood on Montpelier’s College Hill precinct, the new two-story structure is clad in white clapboard, while striking a modern counterpoint to the historic context. The transparency of the common space on the first level heightens opportunities for collaboration and interaction with the broader college community. A modular expression of the residential units are expressed in the articulation of the structure above.
Photo Credit | Gary Hall, Susan Rodriguez, Megan Riley
