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Converse College needed to weave a series of collaborative studios in and around the footprint of an existing forty-year-old arts center. With an imaginative expansion, Craig Gaulden Davis transformed the structure into an inspiring Fine Arts Center with spacious workspaces for students and faculty, exhibit areas, and interior and exterior classrooms.
Like a minimalist painting, the Center's architecture is "raw-boned," with exposed concrete, steel, glass and other common materials at the core of both buildings:
An open mezzanine allows six studios and a lobby to fit comfortably in a small space.
Faculty loft studios on the mezzanine overlook student work areas below, a dynamic arrangement that fosters collaboration.
A wide central corridor links faculty and student studios and provides exhibition space to encourage interaction and discussion.
A system of north-facing skylights on the roof combines with wedge-shaped studios to provide balanced natural lighting.
Outdoor work spaces, overhead doors, and abuse-resistant finishes allow artists to use even caustic materials and experimental techniques in their work.
New interior and exterior classrooms, labs, studio spaces, faculty offices and exhibit spaces were added to accommodate studies in textiles, interior design, graphic design, photography, sculpture, and art education. As a gallery, workspace and learning center, the Fine Arts Center is a coherent portrait of the creative process.
Client: Converse College
Location: Spartanburg, South Carolina
Cost (2001): $2 million
Area: 13,600 square feet
Program: Classrooms, faculty and student art studios, laboratories, faculty and administrative offices, gallery
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