CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM PRINCETON, NJ

teaching spaces in a mid-century modern university building

As part of our renovation of the mid-century modern icon New South Building, JBA designed new teaching and office space for Princeton University’s renowned Program in Creative Writing.  The Creative Writing suite includes unconventional learning spaces -- glass-walled seminar rooms, an open library, and a coffee bar/lounge.  The library wall features a cento, a non-sequitur compilation of large-scale prose by faculty members such as Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates.  This wall also features large, sliding glass panels, such that the library can be opened to the contiguous lounge space, or close for acoustical separation.  Teaching spaces and faculty offices are located on the building perimeter, and feature reclaimed poured-in-place concrete waffle slab ceilings and glass curtain walls.  The space was designed maximizing sustainable building products, including carpet made from recycled fibers, reconstituted stone, and panel products made from wheat.