Sarah Lawrence College – Heimbold Visual Arts Center

Sciame was the Construction Manager responsible for the construction of the new Heimbold Center, which brings Sarah Lawrence’s visual arts department under one roof. While accommodating the schools various space needs, the design meets safety and environmental standards that make the new Visual Arts Center LEED compliant. The new Center has six studio spaces that will be used interchangeably for sculpture, painting, and visual fundamentals.

Other program elements include faculty offices, general teaching classrooms, a soundstage, a darkroom, print making facilities, a visual resources library, and a 200-seat auditorium. The building is integrated into the landscape and the surrounding campus through a design that is sensitive to the undulating topography of the campus and the scale of surrounding structures.

Entrances and exits to the Center are designed to encourage students and faculty to use the building as a passageway through the campus so that the visual arts can be integrated with daily academic and student life. The use of skylights and open spaces between levels reinforces a sense of transparency, allows sunlight to permeate throughout the building, and provides a view of artists at work.