The new 16,000 square foot construction includes laboratories and offices and integrates art and architecture in special ways to help the building communicate its function and curriculum. Educational architecture seldom expresses what goes on inside it. Here, working very closely with the faculty of the department, the “Story of Food” is presented on the exterior and interior of the building. The south facing elevation has icons embedded in the glass symbolizing the changing seasons and landscape of Vermont. The density of repetition of the icons (such as meadow grasses) controls the transparency of the glass façade and the amount of sunlight that can enter the building. The main entrance is defined by the “Egg”, an egg shaped stairwell and graphic wall covered with images illustrating the Story of Food as narrated by the faculty. These images are seen both from the outside and the inside pedestrian flow. The façade and the “Egg” illustrate what is taught within the new department (see Architectural Murals).
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