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The Taft School

Library and Math & Science Building

Unifying the campus architecture.

Taken together, the new Mathematics and Science Center and the renovated and expanded library join together to create an educational center that presents a cohesive whole. The building forms a new focal point on the campus edge where building and nature exist harmoniously. A nearby pond anchors the buildings. To emphasize water as a primary locus, the size of the pond was doubled, increasing its ability to physically engage the building edges.

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Communicating a building's purpose.

In the math & science building, the main stair circulation is animated by an illustrated history of science from the lever at the ground floor, to the computer chip at the top floor.

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A brutalist building gets a makeover.

The 1960s-era library facade clashed dramatically with the ornamented campus aesthetic and the interior spaces lacked many public amenities. As part of the larger campus reorganization, it was proposed to wrap the existing library facade and create a new reading room to continue the line of facades along the pond’s edge. The new library construction consists of two large spaces and renovations to the existing building. The addition replaces the former sunken common area with a soaring great room.

Before Taft Library
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Honoring the founders.

Phrases from the school’s founders are sandblasted in the glass of the library reading room, recalling the stained glass and etchings seen in the windows around campus and expressing the traditions and missions of the school.

Let's aim for

extraordinary

together

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274 Graham Gund Partners 2018 04 10 Gene 82 U8