TOZZER ANTHROPOLOGY BUILDING
KVA’s design for Harvard University’s Tozzer Anthropology Building transforms the public presence and programs of the 1971 Tozzer Library. The design challenge was to expand a 21st century Anthropology curriculum while re-using the existing 1971 building footprint, Campus infrastructure connections, and steel and concrete structural system. The massing strategy adds two new stories under a large copper roof volume, which rotates to capture daylight for a large internal light well around which the internal programs revolve. The copper roof form and its subtle rotation strengthen a more independent reading of the Tozzer Anthropology building as a pavilion in the Peabody Courtyard. The new design provides a public entry on Divinity Avenue, public access from the new lobby to the Peabody Courtyard and a direct link to the Peabody Museum Collections and Department of Archeology.
The 1971 three-story brick envelope could not be re-used due to mold and vapor barrier problems in the original construction. The design invents a digitally corbelled brick detail at the new entry that is directly linked with the overall geometry of the building massing, with each brick course shifted from the course below in parallel with the building structure. Using a standard contemporary brick veneer construction, the new design expresses a contemporary brick materiality that resonates with the 19th century brick details of the Peabody campus context.
Working with University and Anthropology Faculty, Staff and Librarians, the KVA design team developed smart classrooms, collegial spaces, faculty offices and a renewed Anthropology Library to house the Tozzer anthropology collections. The new program is organized around a central light well clad in birch wood. Offices, classrooms and informal gathering places ring this “living space”, which brings daylight into the building, creates visual relationships between floor levels, and provides acoustic treatment. The light well circulates tempered air as part of an innovative energy-saving ventilation system. The Tozzer Anthropology building opens in Summer 2014 and has received LEED Gold certification.
Date: 2014
Status: Construction 2012 - 2014
Client: Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, MA
Design Team:
Frano Violich, FAIA; Managing Principal
Sheila Kennedy, FAIA; Principal Consulting on Design
Greg Burchard, AIA, LEED AP; Project Architect
J. Seth Hoffman, LEED AP: Project Manager
Justin Hui, Jungmin Nam, Charles Garcia, Daniel Sullivan, Alda Black, Alex Shelly, Blair Cranston, Ben Widger, Kyle Altman
Architect: Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Ltd.
Structural Engineer: Lemessurier Consultants
MEP & Envelope: Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, PC
Civil Engineer: Green International Affiliates Inc.
Landscape Architect: Richard Burk Associates, Inc.
Lighting Designer: Tillotson Design Associates
Code Consultant: Hughes Associates Inc.
Acoustic Consultant: Cavanaugh Tocci Associates
Photographer: John Horner