East End Transformation

This project was selected as a winner in AIA's 2023 Regional & Urban Architecture Awards.

Dreamed up by Cope and Stewardson in 1900, the original master plan for Washington University in St. Louis established a park-like setting. A century of car-centric development, however, compromised this verdant vision with a plethora of roads and parking lots that blotted the landscape.

A collaboration between multiple firms, the East End Transformation project recasts the campus’ relationship to the automobile through five new buildings, including an underground parking garage designed to accommodate a “post-private vehicle world,” according to the designers. The solution sensitively adds new structures to the campus’ historical plan without resorting to the collegiate, Gothic motifs that mark the oldest structures. Each new building meets at least LEED Gold certification, with three achieving Platinum status. The team also replaced roads and parking lots with open green space, offering protection for pedestrians and bicyclists and steering the larger community toward more sustainable living.

Project Credits
Projects: Anabeth and John Weil Hall
Architects: KieranTimberlake (James Timberlake, FAIA, Richard Maimon, FAIA, Marilia Rodrigues, AIA, Kate Czembor, AIA, Adam Loughry, AIA, Nick Sillies, AIA, Charles Sparkman, AIA, Jeremy Leman, Jazz Graves, AIA, Claire Edelen, AIA, Brian Kerr, Suzanne Mahoney, AIA, Patrick Morgan, AIA, Ryan Wall, AIA), Tao + Lee Associates, BNIM, Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, Mackey Mitchell Architects, Perkins Eastman, and Patterhn Ives
FFE: Arcturis
Structural Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
MEP Engineer: BuroHappold Engineering, with KAI Engineering
Central Utilities MEP Engineer: McClure Engineering
Civil Engineer: Cole
Geotechnical Engineer: Geotechnology
Construction Manager: McCarthy Building Cos.
Landscape Architect: Michael Vergason Landscape Architects with Arbolope Studio
Lighting Designer: Fisher Marantz Stone
AV Consultant: The Sextant Group
Code Consultant: Code Consultants
Façade Consultant: Eckersley O’Callaghan & Partners
Acoustics: Metropolitan Acoustics
Soils and Irrigation: Jeffrey L. Bruce & Co.
Campus Mobility: Schulze+Grassov
Cost Estimator: The Capital Projects Group
Food Service: Webb Foodservice Design
Waterproofing: Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates
Graphics: Kuhlmann Leavitt
Specifications: Heller & Metzger
LEED Administration: Sustainable Design Consulting
Size: 80,670 gross square feet

The above article appeared in the May/June 2023 issue of ARCHITECT.

In the new architecture school building, Weil Hall, a second-floor atrium boasts an interior landscape with a green wall and a shade canopy to filter daylight over the study areas to control glare.

The abundant use of glass is “the right message to be sending because you’re handling all the [concerns about] the transparency necessary for academic expression and light for art and making architecture,” says KieranTimberlake partner James Timberlake, FAIA.

Aluminum fins on the Weil Hall exterior were carefully modeled, and are varied from floor to floor and façade to façade to maximize views while providing maximum shading for the glazing to minimize energy usage.

KieranTimberlake used its Tally software for material selection, but also worked closely with the contractor to consider the embodied carbon of materials. “We originally thought that these would be poured-in-place frame buildings, but McCarthy Building Cos. worked with us to lighten them and make them steel buildings, sitting up above the concrete foundation,” Timberlake says.

This project first appeared in the February 2020 issue of ARCHITECT, as part of our coverage of Washington University's East End Transformation.