SETON HALL UNIVERSITY

Location: South Orange, New Jersey, USA

Design Director: Raya Ani

Company Name: Perkins+Will

Category: Institution

Year: 2005

The science & technology Center (McNulty Hall) was fully renovated with a new addition of 110,000 sf as part of the school’s master plan to meet the science program’s future growth. The design provided state-of-the -art research laboratories, teaching spaces, common areas and offices for the school’s science department.

The main design challenge was to integrate the new addition in a seamless manner with the older facility, while bringing the old facility to new modern standards without demolishing any parts of the existing structure or facades.

The existing Atom wall was an important part of the existing building; thus it was celebrated as the main feature of the pre-function space. Natural light from a linear skylight above the Atom wall, along with the two-story glass wall, illuminated the wall as well as the pre-function space while creating a visual connections to the landscape at the front of the building.

Bringing this aging facility up to modern standards entailed the complete renovation of the existing 70,000s.f. Building: new windows, brick re-pointing, replacement of mechanical, electrical and information technology systems, along with code updates and accessibility requirements to integrate new technologies within a historical building context.