Located on Tulane University’s Gibson Quad, Mussafer Hall combines the adaptive reuse of a 1902 brick building with a modern limestone addition. The building is the home of the Center for Student Success, which brings together Tulane’s Academic Advising and Career Services programs.
The 1902 Dutch-Renaissance style building was originally constructed as the college’s first dormitory. The long, narrow building was divided by a double-loaded corridor. The glass-fronted offices and interview rooms lining the hall have windows looking outside to make the building feel open and bright. Two original stairwells have been repurposed as lightwells and, where possible, original brick interior walls were exposed and repointed.
Photo: Sara Essex Bradley.
The addition sits on a tight site between the 1902 building and a 100-year-old oak tree. The 7,600-sf building navigates its site with a series of shifting cantilevered volumes clad in stucco, limestone, and glass. Mussafer Hall’s triangular footprint is set back from the historic building and angled away from the tree to protect its roots and canopy.
Photo: Neil Alexander.
The central ground-floor space is designed to accommodate classes, lectures, meetings, receptions, seminars, and other events. Black millwork panels conceal storage areas, flex space, and marker boards.
Mussafer Hall is the second full building studioWTA has designed on Tulane’s campus and the firm’s 12th project for the School.
Photo: Sara Essex Bradley.
Photo: Sara Essex Bradley.
Photo: Sara Essex Bradley.
Photo: Sara Essex Bradley.
Photo: Neil Alexander.
Related Stories
| Oct 13, 2010
Science building supports enrollment increases
The new Kluge-Moses Science Building at Piedmont Virginia Community College, in Charlottesville, is part of a campus update designed and managed by the Lukmire Partnership. The 34,000-sf building is designed to be both a focal point of the college and a recruitment mechanism to get more students enrolling in healthcare programs.
| Oct 13, 2010
Residences bring students, faculty together in the Middle East
A new residence complex is in design for United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, UAE, near Abu Dhabi. Plans for the 120-acre mixed-use development include 710 clustered townhomes and apartments for students and faculty and common areas for community activities.
| Oct 13, 2010
New health center to focus on education and awareness
Construction is getting pumped up at the new Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado, Denver. The four-story, 94,000-sf building will focus on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community college plans new campus building
Construction is moving along on Hudson County Community College’s North Hudson Campus Center in Union City, N.J. The seven-story, 92,000-sf building will be the first higher education facility in the city.
| Oct 12, 2010
University of Toledo, Memorial Field House
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Memorial Field House, once the lovely Collegiate Gothic (ca. 1933) centerpiece (along with neighboring University Hall) of the University of Toledo campus, took its share of abuse after a new athletic arena made it redundant, in 1976. The ultimate insult occurred when the ROTC used it as a paintball venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cell and Genome Sciences Building, Farmington, Conn.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Administrators at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington didn’t think much of the 1970s building they planned to turn into the school’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building. It’s not that the former toxicology research facility was in such terrible shape, but the 117,800-sf structure had almost no windows and its interior was dark and chopped up.
| Oct 12, 2010
Full Steam Ahead for Sustainable Power Plant
An innovative restoration turns a historic but inoperable coal-burning steam plant into a modern, energy-efficient marvel at Duke University.
| Sep 16, 2010
Green recreation/wellness center targets physical, environmental health
The 151,000-sf recreation and wellness center at California State University’s Sacramento campus, called the WELL (for “wellness, education, leisure, lifestyle”), has a fitness center, café, indoor track, gymnasium, racquetball courts, educational and counseling space, the largest rock climbing wall in the CSU system.
| Sep 13, 2010
Community college police, parking structure targets LEED Platinum
The San Diego Community College District's $1.555 billion construction program continues with groundbreaking for a 6,000-sf police substation and an 828-space, four-story parking structure at San Diego Miramar College.
