The outdated science facilities needed more than a renovation and additional space; the departments required new technology and a multi-disciplinary teaching environment. By transforming isolated departments into a social and intellectual gathering place for the entire campus, we created a true unified science center. The individual science buildings and library are now interconnected through a series of laboratory blocks, lecture halls, study areas, and courtyards. Located at the center of the complex is a commons with inviting transparent walls and a "butterfly"-shaped roof.

The center is placed at the north end of the campus to form the fourth edge of the academic quadrangle. The new forms wrap around the existing buildings to link the existing individual science buildings and library. A series of interconnected gardens between the existing and new masses provide views, light, and air into all parts of the building and lead out to the wooded preserve north and west of the site.

To respect the scale of the campus, the new center is broken down into separate masses linked with a series of special connector elements. The heights are kept low at two and three stories, with a sunken garden that spills out into the woods allowing views over the new building to the woods. Local schist stone laid in an ashlar pattern ties the building into the fabric of the campus, while modern forms and detailing are employed throughout the new building. The connector elements share details to link together the large building while breaking down the scale: hovering butterfly-shaped roofs supported on a single line of columns; standing seam metal cladding; and concrete pylons. Two larger lecture halls, clad in local schist stone and rotated at 12 and 18 degrees, reinforce the turning at the corner of the quad and contrast with the rectilinear lab buildings that are sheathed in abstract patterns of honed granite façade panels.