The new headquarters of a prominent Midwestern philanthropy combines 105,000 gsf of office space and 32,000 gsf of conference facilities in a two-story building surrounding an open-ended courtyard and pond. It is the centerpiece of the client’s 37-acre midtown site, master planned by our firm. Within the master plan, a formal Memorial Garden and a Nature Discovery Center were designed by other firms.

The project reclaims a former residential area devastated by floods and re-configured by the US Corps of Engineers. Within this new topography, a storm water management basin has been transformed into a 3-acre sequence of ponds, wetlands, bridges and a small island. The new building is embedded in this landscape, with views of the ponds to the east, the creek to the south, the Garden to the west and the Nature Center’s instructional landscape to the northeast. The open form of the building merges with the landscape and symbolically embraces the urban redevelopment neighborhood beyond.

The architectural concept employs a hierarchy of “excavations” to represent the reclamation of the site as a place for gathering. The building as a whole is organized around the excavation of the new pond, with the conference center planned around the central, “excavated” Town Square, and the kiva-like meeting space displayed at the prow of the building has its tiered seating organized around an “excavated” octagon. These successive centers support and symbolize the philanthropy’s mission of encouraging communication to build communities.

The two-story high office wings on either side of the open space are joined together at their western end by the cafeteria, on the first floor, and by the executive suite at the level above. The transparency of the courtyard elevations links the offices with the landscape and to each other. The major arteries of the office wings lead into the fan-shaped Town Square, whose double-height volume is daylit by clerestory windows. Large conference rooms and smaller break-out spaces create facades and porches to this “Square.” An ambulatory around it gives access to a variety of conference spaces. The Town Square can with its flexible arrangements accommodate various modes of assembly. Between office space and conference center there is the “seam” of the double-height skylit entrance foyer with its main stair and exhibition gallery.

The building under a large copper roof, is clad in brick and at its interior employs a minimalist palette of materials. Natural maple is used throughout the building in millwork and furniture. Wood slat screens and ceilings highlight the Town Square, the cafeteria, and the Resource Center. Horizontal planes are treated as indoor extensions of the landscape, with the bluestone and lawn transformed into Burlington slate and carpet at the interior.

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