Steven Holl Architects (SHA) has built some of the most imaginative buildings of the last decades. Several of them are university projects, including two gems at the University of Iowa campus; the most recent, the Visual Arts Building, opened just last year. But even an architect of Holl’s stature has seen his share of misses along with the hits. In theory, his latest project, the Lewis Arts Complex at Princeton University, named for the late alumnus and philanthropist Peter B. Lewis, has all the ingredients to make a great building—an enlightened client, a robust program, a prominent site, and a subject close to the architect’s heart. With one major exception, unfortunately, in the execution, much of this work falls short.
Princeton has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the most elite educational institutions in the country, nestled within a pastoral campus with a rich mix of collegiate Gothic and Romanesque revival buildings. In recent years, it has devoted increased attention to the creative and performing arts, historically taken less seriously than academic courses. Its plans for a purpose-built complex on the western edge of campus to house the growing number of students in theater, dance, music, studio art, and creative writing—previously scattered in buildings all over campus—were ambitious, perhaps overly so.
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