Tozzer Anthropology Building

The university`s Anthropology Department, made up by Archaeology and Social Anthropology, had been housed in two buildings limiting social interaction between the two programs. With the consolidation of library holdings, Harvard University sought to unify the programs under one roof by moving Social Anthropology`s administration offices and teaching spaces into the new building, connecting it directly to Archaeology, and calling for generous social spaces for collaboration and engagement. Modernist era university buildings are aging across America due to outdated construction that was based on building codes that cannot meet contemporary envelope, seismic, and energy requirements. At the same time universities cannot dismiss the embodied energy and materials that make up these buildings. The Tozzer Anthropology Building transforms the public presence and programs of Johnson and Hotveld`s 1971 Tozzer Library by re-using the existing building`s foundation, campus infrastructure connections, and steel and concrete structure. The new massing increases usable SF by 29% with a copper roof volume, which rotates to capture daylight and strengthens a reading of the building as a pavilion in the Peabody Courtyard. The project`s massing strategy adds two stories of new construction under a large copper roof volume, which rotates to capture daylight for a large internal light well around which the internal programs revolve. An exterior porch had separated the building from Divinity Avenue, and a dis-used tunnel prohibited access to the courtyard. The design creates a public entry on Divinity Avenue, which establishes a new public connection between the lobby, the exterior courtyard and the Peabody Museum Collections. The massing strengthens a more independent reading of the Tozzer Anthropology building as a pavilion in the Peabody Courtyard. The new design includes new landscape elements and grading of the Peabody Courtyard as well as the design integration of archeological photographs and artefacts.