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Located at the center of an historic campus, this 16,000 gsf addition to the Philosophy Department and Center for Human Values extends the existing 1879 Hall to mark the entry to McCosh walk. The project provides twenty-two faculty offices, a student word processing room and a departmental library in a separately articulated three-story volume. Two 600-square foot classrooms, a double-height conference room, and the mechanical penthouse are assembled to form a four-story tower, which is rotated in plan to align with and frame the entrance to the major campus pedestrian route. The pivot for this rotated form is the octagonal stair which affords views of the adjacent pool and plaza, and brings light to the interior lobbies. This addition to the north of the 1879 Hall building finally completes the definition of an existing courtyard.

In its plan organization, the parallel corridors provide for mechanical space in the 10'-5' floor-to-floor heights required to align the new construction with the existing building, while the organization of the central core elements reserves all of the available perimeter for occupied spaces.

In addition to the new construction, a faculty lounge and administrative center were provided by renovating the end pavilion of the existing two-story building. Through its massing, its gables and materials, the new Hall carefully extends the themes of the neighboring historic buildings, while subtly expressing its modernity through its masonry detailing and use of steel tracery on the facades.

The walls are red brick laid in an English bond pattern to match and align with the coursing of the existing Hall. Limestone water and string courses match and align with existing stonework, and then are sheared or manipulated to accept the modern fenestration. Custom thin-profile windows are painted aluminum, with lintels and major mullions of structural steel. Pitched roofs are of purple-mottled green slate, and rain leaders, featuring custom collector boxes, are copper.