Anthropology Building

The Anthropology Building provides a shared home for the Anthropology department and associated Frison institute, the Archaeology department, and the State Historic Preservation and Curation Lab. Once housed in disparate campus locations, consolidating departments provided a unique opportunity to create an academic building within a museum-like setting that “connects building users to the past with an eye on the future.” The façade and interior design reinforce this. The building exterior incorporates campus materials and transparency, while a central atrium serves as an extension of the Anthroplogy museum, with historic artifacts displayed in prominent locations visible from the exterior and interior.

Designed to inspire and recruit current and future faculty and students, the lobby is a means of wayfinding. Interior windows and storefront surrounding the multi-story atrium walls provide visual connections to the varied museum, classroom, lab, and office spaces. Housed within a glassy volume that connects two sides of the building, the lobby creates a beacon.

Designed as the first campus building located in a precinct slated for future development, the Anthropology Building establishes an important first precedent of material, scale, and massing in this part of the campus. The façade design reflects a palette that addresses the future of the north campus and the role of the Anthropology Program as a state of the art, integrated facility. Sandstone and horizontal stone banding provide texture. Glazing at a prominent corner stair tower animates the building while creating a welcoming gesture to a growing campus precinct.

In collaboration with By Architectural Means