Brown taps two firms for projects

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.–based Anmahian Winton Architects will design the renovation of Wilson Hall, a 125-year-old classroom building on the College Green. The renovation will update the interior and improve accessibility for people with disabilities. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.–based Anmahian Winton Architects will design the renovation of Wilson Hall, a 125-year-old classroom building on the College Green. The renovation will update the interior and improve accessibility for people with disabilities. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE – Brown University has selected two architectural teams for two major projects, including the complete interior renovation of one of its principal classroom buildings.
New York–based Toshiko Mori Architect will design a 20,000-square-foot expansion of the current Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs building. The new building will add classroom and research space.
Cambridge, Mass.–based Anmahian Winton Architects will design the renovation of Wilson Hall, a 125-year-old classroom building on the College Green. The renovation will update the interior and improve accessibility for people with disabilities.
Provost Richard M. Locke, in a news release, said the projects are instrumental in helping Brown advance its goals, create a vibrant academic community and ensure exceptional teaching and research across disciplines.
“They will also enhance the campus, integrating modern design while preserving iconic historic spaces and honoring the university’s aesthetic,” Locke said.
Pending approval by the city of Providence, which will review Brown’s institutional master plan, both projects will begin construction in June 2017.
Mori has worked on the Brown campus previously, designing the renovation of 85 Waterman in 2014 and of Pembroke Hall in 2008. She is a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
According to Brown, the Watson Institute expansion will include a renovation of 65 Charlesfield, a 10,000-square-foot, three-story historic building on the corner of Charlesfield and Brook streets, as well as 20,000-square-feet in new construction.
The project will be funded through a $50 million gift to the university from a group of prominent Watson Institute supporters. About $25 million of their gift will fund the new construction.
Starr Plaza, a green space behind the current Watson building, at 111 Thayer St., will be enhanced to form the new center of a quad anchored by the current center, the new structure, the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy and 65 Charlesfield.
The Wilson Hall renovation targets one of the most heavily used classrooms on campus.
Nick Winton, principal architect of Anmahian Winton Architects, is a Brown alumnus. The firm worked previously at the university in designing the 2008 renovation of Rhode Island Hall.
The Wilson project will be a complete renovation of the building that preserves its historic exterior but modernizes the interior, and creates seven new classrooms that can be reconfigured physically.
The project will be financed with money raised through the university’s Brown Together capital campaign.

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