map-lab, inc.

Stephen Moore and the team took on an adaptive reuse of a rare texts archive building as a Brandeis multi-department academic complex. The two-story atrium of the concrete 1966 structure is now sky-lit to make a dramatic student, faculty and staff commons, with gathering space and work areas. The sustainable design employs day-lighting strategies to reduce energy use and zero-emmitting materials to enhance the indoor air quality.
The building had many design challenges, not the least of which was bringing the egress into the present by creating a new entry addition was created in what had been a loading dock area for the original building. This new addition acts as the prime mover for floor-to-floor circulation and reorients the facility and presents a welcoming presence at the heart of the campus. It also accommodates the elevator that was required for accessibility.
Multiple departments needed to move to the space from various scattered parts of the campus were distributed around the large atrium space that occupies the core of the building, uniting them here.
This was the first project that MDS used BIM for, which allowed for a more thorough investigation of the existing conditions and how the new work would integrate.
(Stephen Moore performed this work while with MDS/Miller Dyer Spears, photos by John Horner)