Established in 1787, Franklin & Marshall College traces its lineage to Benjamin Franklin and three other signers of the Declaration of Independence. So it has roots in revolutionary thinking, though its leafy campus in south central Pennsylvania strikes a more peaceful, pastoral note today. To prepare for his interview for the job of designing a new visual arts center at the college in 2015, Steven Holl created two watercolors expressing different approaches to the project, each referring to distinct aspects of the school’s heritage. One showed a brick edifice firmly anchored to the ground like many buildings on the campus. The other depicted a lightweight structure hovering above the land like a kite and responding to the large-diameter trees on the site with a scalloped facade curving around them.
The 32,000-square-foot building sits at a pivotal location with the historic part of campus to the north, the town to the south, and Buchanan Park to the west.
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