Project overview: The Academic Center and new campus green space transforms the “academic campus on the hill” at the Noble and Greenough School. Within the Academic Center, the new Putnam Library and highly flexible classrooms form a new intellectual heart of campus—a place where students meet with faculty, work together, and study independently.
The Putnam Library features an active reading room and quiet study room expressed as separate volumes nestled amongst tall pines and rock outcroppings, and facing a clearing. With a main entry immediately off the major campus pedestrian spine, the daylit, transparent Reading Room has become the primary gathering space on campus.
Its counterpart, the Quiet Study Room, faces the historic Olmsted landscape and HH Richardson design “Castle” and offers a contemplative space for students to focus on their studies. A large barn door directly links the library to the public “hub” and access to classrooms, faculty offices, and an art gallery wall for student work. Two innovation classrooms are oversized for a variety of classroom teaching arrangements.
Project location: Dedham, Massachusetts
Firm name: William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc.
Architect of Record: William Rawn Associates
Completion: 2018
Jury comments: Great design.
Client: Noble & Greenough School
Images/Photographer(s): Robert Benson Civil Engineer: Oak Engineering Structural: LeMessurier Mechanical: Rist-Frost-Shumway, P.C. Acoustics: Acentech Landscaping: Stephen Stimson Associates Lighting: Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design
