Restoring Yale

Join the ICAA New England Chapter for tours of two restoration projects at Yale University: The restoration of the Schwarzman Center designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, given by Kurt Glauber, Associate Partner, and the restoration of the Hall of Graduate Studies at 320 York Street by Ann Beha Architects now annum architects, given by Ann Beha.

Schwarzman Center

Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Yale University’s Schwarzman Center transforms Carrère & Hastings’ historic Commons and three floors of the adjoining Memorial Hall, which are components of the 1901 Bicentennial Building, into a campus social hub. With over $100 million donated by philanthropist Stephen Schwarzman, and a restoration and renovation led by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Yales’ new Schwarzman Center is dedicated to cultural programming and student life, outfitted with state-of-the-art technology that enables virtual engagement with the off-campus Yale community as well as the general public.

The renovations retain and restore historic architecture and return to public use the Dome Room, which for decades served as the yearbook office, by reinventing it as a flexible performance space.

Humanities Quadrangle

Ann Beha Architects, now annum architects

Yale University’s new Humanities Quadrangle centralizes fifteen academic departments in a renewed and expanded campus landmark, James Gamble Rogers’ Hall of Graduate Studies.

Reconsidering the Collegiate Gothic Hall’s prior residential uses, and its original segmented plan, ABA’s design unified building wings and disparate levels, repurposed residential facilities, and renewed historic interiors to support flexible settings for interdisciplinary work and innovation. The design program supports collaboration, workplace, teaching, community, and research.

The complex features two re-landscaped courtyards above a new lecture hall, a film center, and gathering space. This distinctively contemporary expansion, set below grade, respects the original plan, adding no new footprint.

Setting a preservation and design framework to guide the renovation, decorative finishes, carved limestone, wood paneling and doors, lighting fixtures, slate roofs, masonry facades were restored, and more than 2,000 leaded glass windows repaired or replicated.

Reopened in 2021, The 195,000 SF Humanities Quad awards include an AIA Connecticut 2022 Award, and has been designated LEED Gold.

Ann Beha Founder of Ann Beha Architects, now annum architects is best known for championing preservation and adaptive use in dialogue with contemporary design. Ann’s work invites us to renew and reconsider our existing buildings and resources, expanding the impact and identity of civic, educational, and cultural settings. Her 40-year practice delivered planning and design projects at MIT, Harvard, Yale, the US Embassies in Paris and Athens, the Smithsonian Institution, and numerous community-based organizations. ABA, now annum architects, has been honored by the American Institute of Architects and its chapters, and Ann has received the Boston Society of Architects’ Honor Award, and the Women in Design Award of Excellence, and the inaugural Award of Honor from the US Department of State, Overseas Building Operations.

Kurt Glauber, Associate Partner, has been at Robert A.M. Stern Architects since 1996. He served as a project manager for the Schwarzman Center at Yale University, which transformed Carrère & Hastings' historic Commons and three floors of the adjoining Memorial Hall—components of their 1901 Bicentennial Buildings—into a social hub for the university's undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Mr. Glauber previously served as Project Manager for two new 452-bed residential colleges at Yale University—Pauli Murray College and Benjamin Franklin College; and the Northwest Corner at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which included the master plan and programming of the Harvard Law School campus and the space programming and design of the new LEED Gold 266,000-square-foot Wasserstein Hall, Caspersen Student Center, and Clinical Wing.