Idiosyncratic
“Mack Scogin Merrill Elam angles its architecture toward the landscape and culture of Wellesley with the idiosyncratic Wang Center” is the title of a recent feature in Architectural Record, one of the most highly regarded periodicals on architecture. Mack Scogin Merrill Elam (MSME) are also the architects of the Gates Center and, along with the Knowlton School at OSU, the Wang Center is the second building by MSME in two years that has been featured by Architectural Record. This is a feat only accomplished by eight other top international architects, including five Pritzker Prize winners (”the Nobel Prize of architecture”).
Since having respect from architects doesn’t always mean that a building is well designed for the users, I’ll note that five members of the SCS program committee for the Gates Center have visited the Wang Center and we all agree that this is one of the most impressive University/College buildings we have seen, especially from the inside. The people we spoke to who were in the building loved it.
The Wang Campus Center, the Knowlton School and the Gates Center will all look very different on the outside, and will have quite different functions on the inside: a campus center, an open architectural workspace, and a research office space. They however all share many common themes. One is that they they all have lots of internal light and have many internal views creating links between various spaces. Another is that the architects have paid very careful attention to the needs of the users and created spaces tailored to these needs.
Perhaps the most distinguishing theme is reflected in the title—the buildings are all “idiosyncratic”. In the body of the article the Wang Center is described as “a place that draws you in, a place that you discover slowly, over time”, and “the architects have succeeded in making the center as rich and idiosyncratic as the landscape”. A place that one will discover slowly, will also almost surely be true with the Gates Center.
Also in all cases the buildings are very much responding to a rather complicated site. At the Knowlton School, the building is actually shaped in the same form as the small site–an odd shape that looks like some kind of mechanical widget–to pretty much fill it all. The article about the Wang Center includes “Those who prefer their Modernism crisp and Miesian might wonder what all the zigzagging is about, but the design decisions are neither arbitrary nor whimsical. The architects have shaped the building to fit a complicated site, with each elevation responsive to its particular setting” along with “The more one encounters [the building] in person, the more one appreciates its responsiveness to its setting.” I would say that our site is even more complicated than the others.
Finally I should note that all the buildings had some controversy over their “contemporary” design. The Wang Center article finishes: “[The Wang Center] has also become another example of Wellesley’s willingness to embrace contemporary architecture. Which, on a New England campus with its share of Collegiate Gothic, is not always an easy sell, [..]. But the college planners persisted, and through a thoughtful design process, have built a place of its time, and emphatically of its place.”