In 2017, Washington University in St. Louis began one of the most significant capital projects in the recent history of the Danforth Campus: the transformation of the East End. The $280 million project creates a new front door for the University, strengthens academic connections, enhances campus green space and circulation, improves parking and accessibility, and better frames iconic Brookings Hall. The transformation also improves links between the Danforth Campus and the adjacent, 1,300-acre Forest Park.
Two key components of the East End transformation include major projects for the Sam Fox School: the construction of Anabeth and John Weil Hall, and the expansion of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, both designed by the internationally acclaimed architecture firm KieranTimberlake. Details about these two projects are featured below, and highlighted in this news release.
Visit campusnext.wustl.edu for additional details about the plan to transform the east end of the Danforth Campus and project updates, as well as information about how to get around campus.
Media Coverage
University reaches major sustainable building milestone: East End project buildings, January Hall awarded LEED Platinum recognition
Archinect: The Decarbonization of Washington University (cover story including 25-page feature)
The Architect's Newspaper: KieranTimberlake's vision for Washington University to open this fall
Artforum: Expanded Kemper Art Museum to Reopen in September
St. Louis Magazine: The Kemper is reopening this fall with a blockbuster exhibit: 'Ai Weiwei: Bare Life'
St. Louis Public Radio: Ai Weiwei Exhibition To Open Expanded Kemper Art Museum In September
Anabeth and John Weil Hall
Photo by Peter Aaron/OTTO.
Opened in fall 2019, Anabeth and John Weil Hall houses over 82,000 square feet for programs, including state-of-the-art graduate studios, classrooms, and digital fabrication spaces. With its ambitious design, abundant natural light, and flexible, loft-style studios and workspaces, the building is a new locus for teaching, study, creation and critique. Weil Hall has been awarded LEED Platinum recognition from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The addition of Weil Hall to the Sam Fox School campus has made it possible, for the first time in recent history, to unite our programs in architecture, art, and design and ensure critical adjacencies for all of our students and faculty to the world-class resources of Washington University.
Weil Hall Commons & the Ralph J. Nagel Dean's Suite
Weil Hall Commons welcomes visitors and provides the entire Sam Fox School community with an inspiring space for meeting, working, or relaxing. The Weil Project Wall activates the space, featuring new commissioned works by alumni each year. The inaugural commission is it comes and it goes, a 12-panel mural by BFA alum Anne Schaefer. With an open central staircase and a glass wall overlooking the relocated Florence Steinberg Weil Sculpture Garden and Ann and Andrew Tisch Park, the Commons is a dynamic space for organized and incidental interactions. The Ralph J. Nagel Dean's Suite offers a central destination for prospective students in art, architecture, and design and their families.
MArch, MUD, MLA Studios
Photo by James Ewing.
Graduate studio spaces for the architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design programs—including the William A. Bernoudy Architecture Studio—are located on the second and third floors, and accommodate approximately 140 individual studio desks. These studios flank the Kuehner Court, allowing natural light to suffuse the spaces while facilitating connections across disciplines. To foster collaboration, the studios feature group worktables and multiple pinup and critique spaces.
MFA Studios
Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com.
Across the south side of Weil Hall's second and third floors, 30 individual, 180-square-foot studios support MFA in Visual Art students' work across media while providing direct access to the facilities in Walker and Bixby Halls, plus the resources of the Kemper Art Museum and Kenneth and Nancy Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library. Installation spaces throughout the studios allow students to convene for critiques, student-curated exhibitions, and impromptu gatherings.
Roxanne H. Frank Design Studio
Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com.
This 2,600-square-foot studio space is the center of design activity in Weil Hall, serving as the home to the new MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture program. The flexible and open space accommodates 24 students, with pinup and critique spaces as well as a printing hub.
This 3,000-square-foot central space is both the physical and conceptual heart of Weil Hall. Here, students and faculty can execute complex projects using state-of-the-art tools like the CNC mill, laser cutters, and 3D printers. Additional space is available for using basic hand tools and assembling projects. This central makerspace connects to an outdoor working court through oversized doors.
Kuehner Court
Photo by James Ewing.
The luminous, two-story Kuehner Court features a living green wall, skylights, and glass walls that allow for visual connectivity between studio spaces, providing students with a feeling of simultaneity and participation in a larger community. The 2,500-square-foot space offers a comfortable lounge and workspace for students, faculty, and visitors.
News story: Courtyard Honors Family’s Love for Art, Architecture>>
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Expansion
Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com.
A striking new 34-foot-tall polished stainless-steel facade draws visitors to the expanded Kemper Art Museum, where public display space has increased by nearly 50 percent. The building's pleated surface reflects the dynamic movement of campus and sky, sparking curiosity and inviting interaction.
Entering the Museum, visitors encounter a soaring glass-lined lobby where a dramatic new installation by artist Tomás Saraceno is suspended overhead. The new 2,700-square-foot James M. Kemper Gallery, with its double-height walls, showcases a range of post-war and contemporary art. On the second floor, the reconfigured Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery provides an intimate viewing experience for major 19th- and early 20th-century European and American works.
Other renovations—led by Escher GuneWardena Architecture in partnership with Trivers—include a first-floor coffee bar and a suite of new galleries on the lower level where visitors are able to enjoy works on paper; video art; an expanded Teaching Gallery; and the new Stair Gallery, highlighting seldom-seen historical objects from the collection.
Outside, the reinstalled Florence Steinberg Weil Sculpture Garden extends the Museum's reach into the surrounding, park-like setting. Situated just north of Weil Hall, along a primary pedestrian thoroughfare, the sculpture garden features iconic sculptures such as Auguste Rodin’s The Shade and Alexander Calder's Five Rudders as well as a new commission by acclaimed contemporary artist Dan Graham.
KieranTimberlake
KieranTimberlake is an internationally acclaimed architecture firm with a portfolio of beautifully crafted, thoughtfully made buildings that are holistically integrated to site, program and people. Founded in 1984, the 100-person practice is recognized worldwide with prestigious design awards, publications and exhibitions. The firm's transdisciplinary approach integrates the expertise of architects, researchers and communicators to create innovative, compelling and award-winning projects for academic, art, cultural, government, and civic institutions throughout North America and overseas.
KieranTimberlake led the design of several components of Washington University's East End transformation project: Anabeth and John Weil Hall, the expansion of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, the Gary M. Sumers Welcome Center, and the Craig and Nancy Schnuck Pavilion, all in partnership with Tao + Lee; as well as an underground parking garage, designed with BNIM.