SCUP/AIA-CAE Excellence in Architecture Addition, Honor Award

Donald E. Axinn ’51, Litt. D. ’89 Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Starr Library, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT and CBT Architects, Boston, MA

Photo by Jonathan Hillyer

Photos by Jonathan Hillyer

Click on the image above to view a larger image.

The design for Middlebury’s Axinn Center at Starr Library reinvents a beloved campus landmark, meets the need for additional classrooms and offices, brings disparate departments together, and redefines the center of an expanding campus.

The school challenged the architects to “honor the past of the library and plan for the honorific future of the facility.” They wanted to preserve the original building’s outstanding features, while outfitting the facility for a new, technologically advanced and environmentally responsible life.

Challenged to meet the college mandate for a 100-year building in a period of rapidly escalating construction costs, the building needed to meet the school’s high standards of enduring architectural quality and environmental responsibility, and the growing demand for flexibility and access to technology.

The focus was on comprehensive, energy-conscious solutions; use of local materials, renewable products and services; harvesting materials from the deconstruction; and creating a construction waste management program for materials not reused. Important to the college culture is the reliance on local craftsmen and a deep-felt commitment to recycling.

The facility is heavily used because of the mix of historic and new spaces, variety of learning spaces, from classroom to studios and a screening room to informal spaces, and the gathering of literature, history, writing and media. 

“This was a sensitive and demanding project in which the architects responded to the potentially contradictory goals of a highly complex program and addressed them all – to the unqualified satisfaction and pleasure of students, faculty, administrators, alumni, community, and state historic preservation officials. It has given new life and stature to an aging campus treasure and improved the functioning of the campus itself,” says Glenn M. Andres, Chair of the Planning Committee.

The process of evaluating every decision for design appropriateness, sustainable opportunity and economic value is now a best practice on campus.

The jury said, “ . . . this is a very thoughtful project . . . I like the restraint . . . didn’t make a new, fancy icon.”

Project Team: Middlebury College and CBT Architects, with Lundquist, Killeen, Potvin, & Bender, Inc.; LeMessurier Consultants, Inc.; Engelberth Construction, Inc.; and Andropogon Associates