PROJECT St. Mary's College of Maryland Anne Arundel Hall
LOCATION St. Mary's City, Maryland US
PROJECT COMPLETION DATE 8/30/2016
ARCHITECT SmithGroup
ASSOCIATED ARCHITECT
OWNER/CLIENT St. Mary’s College of Maryland
CONTRACTOR / CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Gilbane Building Company
PHOTOGRAPHER Brad Feinknopf
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TEAM David Greenbaum, FAIA – PIC, Lead Designer; Greg Mella, FAIA – Project Manager, Sustainable Design; Tom Butcavcage, FAIA – Academic Planner; Chris Wood, Project Architect; Dafeng Cai – Project Architect; Cheryl Brown – Interior Furnishings; Cynthia Cogil, PE – Mechanical Engineer; Sara Lappano, PE – Electrical Engineer; Viral Amin, PE – Code and Life Safety, FP & FA
SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT
Anne Arundel Hall provides new archaeology research and conservation labs, faculty offices, student project rooms, general classrooms, meeting rooms, and informal collaboration areas both inside and out. The academic building houses St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s programs that relate most directly to the cultural, civic, and anthropological legacies of Maryland’s first capital—the fourth permanent settlement in North America—including faculty from anthropology, history, archaeology, museum studies, and international languages and cultures.
By clustering the programmatic elements around a courtyard, the design addresses the site’s historic development and organization, significant tree retention, avoidance of archaeologically sensitive areas, programmatic adjacencies, and viewsheds. The project site is extremely complex: archaeological remains are prevalent and the precinct is an important point of connection between the College’s historic academic core campus and its new north campus, which now contains an equal distribution of academic functions.
Buildings are organized in a pinwheel configuration, centered on the courtyard, with four axes drawings visitors into the complex. Middle Street, one of four major axes that connected important public buildings to the Historic St. Mary’s City’s once thriving Town Center, bisects the project site, connecting the new buildings to the historic core of the city. The pinwheel concept also resolves the geometry to provide new axes that connect the site back to the College’s mid-1800’s historic academic core campus, its new north campus, and the reconstructed Historic Statehouse. At the center of the pinwheel concept lies a new courtyard, building on the College’s legacy of open space features and quadrangles that interplay with the adjacent buildings, creating settings for outdoor teaching and informal gatherings.
Design strategies reinforce the site’s connection to the St. Mary’s River and Chesapeake Bay, creating a sequence of indoor and outdoor spaces that relate to the environmental experience. The major outdoor space, an enclosed courtyard quietly juxtaposed with more traditional building forms, gathers seating and interaction area around a rainwater management feature and bio-retention garden on axis with views of the river beyond. Rainwater captured from building roofs and the courtyard is stored in a 10,000 gallon cistern where it is reused for toilet flushing and irrigation. The project consumes 84.7% less water than a code compliant building. Interior spaces incorporate natural ventilation and passive solar strategies, reducing energy consumption, enhancing biophilic design, and quietly commenting on orientation and site features. These passive design approaches, when coupled with active systems including geothermal wells and heat pumps, and a 19.2 kW photovoltaic array, result in a 70% improvement in energy use over an average building. The project achieved LEED Gold certification.
MEDIA FOR DOWNLOAD
Project/Jury PDF
IMAGE CAPTIONS & CREDITS
IMAGE 1 Aerial of project site. / © 2017 Feinknopf Photography
IMAGE 2 View from the North Campus axis towards the courtyard. / © 2017 Feinknopf Photography
IMAGE 3 The Blackistone Room interior features tidewater architectural elements such as vaulted ceilings, ornamental lighting, wooden shutters, decorative rugs, and plaster walls. The room functions as a lounge, seminar room, and event space, concealing sophisticated audio-visual technology within its traditional appearance. / © 2017 Feinknopf Photography
IMAGE 4 View from the West wing entry towards the North Campus. The well head in the foreground gives clues to the rainwater collection cistern below. / © 2017 Feinknopf Photography
IMAGE 5 Each of the buildings that form the complex are connected with timber bridges creating gateways to and from the courtyard. / © 2017 Feinknopf Photography
IMAGE 6 A commemorative slate plaque and ornamental water feature mark the site of the original town spring that provided fresh water to 17th century settlers. The Blackistone Room wing faces the campus entry. / © 2017 Feinknopf Photography
IMAGE 7 View along the Middle Street axis towards the courtyard. / © 2017 Feinknopf Photography
IMAGE 8 Informal study areas are created inside bridges and circulation paths. / © 2017 Feinknopf Photography
St. Mary's College of Maryland Anne Arundel Hall
Category
Local > AIA Potomac Valley > Institutional Architecture (AIA Potomac Valley)
Winner Status
- Citation Award
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