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Senior Hall—
Eastern Washington University
Cheney, WA
Senior Hall is an historic building on the Eastern Washington University campus that was converted from a residence hall to house the School of Social Work and Human Services. This project consists of doubling the size of the existing structure through a significant expansion of classrooms and support space and renovation of the entire existing building including complete infrastructure replacement.
The expansion occurs primarily in the existing U-shaped courtyard. The addition is intentionally pulled back from the existing structure to create a mixing chamber and to clearly expose the new construction from the original structure. The atrium space leverages natural daylight deep into the former courtyard and maintains the integrity of the central commons, which had become the heart of the program due to its central location and abundance of daylight from both the south and north.
The atrium stairs are offset to enhance social interaction between classes as professors and students move from space to space. Areas of relaxed refuge are strategically placed on the nodes of the circulation system to further enhance communication and idea sharing.
Care was taken on the exterior to respect, but not replicate, the existing fenestration and to create a unified design that integrates the old and the new but distinguishes between the two.
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