Situated at the heart of the Sarah Lawrence College campus, the Barbara Walters Campus Center (BWCC) creates a dynamic new hub of student life and campus community—a center for social and intellectual interaction. As the ‘living room’ of campus, the BWCC provides a communal space the campus lacked—a place with a variety of flexible spaces for conversation, collaboration, celebration, breaking bread, and chance encounters. Informed by a series of robust visioning sessions with the extended campus community, the design is both fully tailored to their specific current needs and equipped to flexibly adapt to those of the future.

The building’s Schematic Design maximizes the use of the site to create an inviting front yard, small terraces, and courtyards that extend the pr¬¬ogram outward. Paths are located to weave pedestrians through the site and building, offering convenient access to programs in the Campus Center and surrounding buildings. Natural landscape elements are woven into the fabric of the site and building; low stone walls act as ledges and establish courtyard boundaries while gracefully sloping lawns act as steps leading to building entries. The building is framed by plantings of trees which integrate it into the existing landscape.
Acting as a tent, the roof covers a series of pavilions and also extends over several exterior spaces in a gesture of welcome, engagement, and appreciation of the natural environment, as well as a nod to large events previously held on campus. The pavilions are connected by an important, interstitial place—the atrium which is anchored by a grand stair with integrated seating. The stair facilitates movement between interior and exterior to create a natural hub of campus activity.

Trailblazing broadcast news journalist and alumna Barbara Walters has attributed her success to the “curiosity and confidence” she gained while attending Sarah Lawrence. Fittingly, the BWCC acts as a platform to highlight the impact and legacy of the Sarah Lawrence education, empowering current and future students to follow in her pioneering footsteps.