Williams College Paresky Center

On Chapin Lawn, the central green space on Williams’ historic campus, the building is a focal point for campus social life, providing space for formal and informal dining, meetings, gatherings, performances, and study and lounge areas.

The new building achieves a balance: in its material quality it relates and scale to the College’s building traditions, while in its forms and massing it establishes a forward-looking architectural identity emblematic of the College’s progressive future.

The design reinforces the principal east-west and north-south student pedestrian traffic patterns to create a dynamic and vital crossroads of student life.

A double-height central space inspired by the rustic construction, comfortable furnishings, generous proportions and open fireplaces of the great nineteenth-century national parks lodges, organizes the building. In the New England tradition, a double-height porch provides a welcoming portico and gathering space, usable through most of the year.

The extensive use of local materials such as wood from Williams’ own forests, Vermont slate, brick and cast stone, all resonate with past and present Williams’ buildings.