George Mason University, Fenwick Library Expansion

Fairfax, VA | 2013

The Fenwick Library expansion redefines the central library as the intellectual heart of George Mason's distributed campus and promotes the University's aspirations for growth as a major research institution. The focal point of the expansion is a new research commons, supporting student scholarship with integrated resources, including ample access to technology, specialized librarians, special collections, writing tutors, and data services. The new research-focused expansion is designed to reinforce the library's connection with the adjacent Johnson Center Library, serving the undergraduate community, and designed by Shepley Bulfinch in 1994. Stewardship to the environment is expressed in the building's design to LEED silver standards, including cooling with chilled beams, external shading devices, a naturally irrigated rain garden, roof garden, and preservation of a natural grove of trees at the south of the site.

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