It has been argued that “no single building on the Wellesley campus can claim as much historical significance and general admiration as does the landscape itself, and the buildings best loved within the Wellesley community have aesthetic properties which blend with those of the landscape.” To take its place at Wellesley, the new campus center and its auxiliary buildings, including a 566-space parking garage, must be derived from the values which are already embedded in the land. This extends beyond external appearance to the building’s internal structure—its essence, if you will.
The new campus center environment celebrates and give enduring form to those principles and values which have grounded the school and have contributed to its unique character. In the campus center-adjacent parking garage, vehicles are concealed behind a unique faux ‘bamboo’ screen constructed from 2” diameter copper tubing bolted to the sides of the spandrels. The spandrels and exposed columns were stained a dark brown. The ‘bamboo’ and reflective glass provide an interesting and pleasing background for a part of the campus adjacent to the busy Wang Campus Center.
