Video: Steven Holl visiting Winter Visual Arts Center

The new Fine Arts Building will replace the Herman Arts Center, originally built in 1969, at the southwest entrance of the historic campus of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.

The large deciduous trees, the oldest elements of the Franklin & Marshall Campus, are the conceptual inspiration behind the building’s geometry. As a lightweight building, its main floor - where double height art studios are located - is lifted into the trees, which has its shape from the concave inflection of the existing trees (all of which are preserved on the site).

The seasonal changing leaf coverage of the deciduous trees became part of Transsolar’s energy and comfort concept and was quantified in radiation studies. The leaves function as natural external shading to reduce the solar gains on the façade in summer and maximize solar gains and daylight during winter, when the trees lose their leaves.