Located on Georgetown University's downtown Capital Campus, the McCourt School of Policy by Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) brings a new academic hub for Washington, D.C.'s policymaking community. Additionally, a series of original site-specific installations by architect, designer, artist, and sculptor Maya Lin encourage building users to consider their natural surroundings.
The 150,000-square-foot building houses extensive educational and community spaces, including 20 classrooms, an expansive central commons, academic offices, a 400-seat auditorium, and a vast rooftop terrace with views of the U.S. Capitol.
A contextual and coherent extension of its surrounding buildings, the cube-like form is clad in stone with panelised metal and glass curtain walls. Vertical fins and brise-soleil, which mitigate against sun exposure and optimize thermal performance, articulate the building's façade with projecting lines that echo the uniform punched windows of the neighbouring 500 First Street NW.
Further enhancing links to its context, a 6th-floor skybridge connects to a floor-wide gathering and conference space suite in the adjacent 500 First Street NW. From the second-floor level, a landscaped promenade travels over an existing structure and down a newly constructed grand stairwell to provide convenient pedestrian access to the Eleanor Holmes Norton Green.
"The architecture of the McCourt School's new building balances its pace within two overlapping contexts: a well-defied urban university campus and downtown Washington, DC. The building reads like an extension of the Capitol Campus, while also animating the pedestrian experience," explains Graham Wyatt, Partner, RAMSA.
Drawing faculty, students, and staff together, the building's interior layout promotes organic interactions and chance encounters. A light-filled double-height atrium, with a 'travelling staircase,' connects the nine levels. Rather than winding directly upward, however, the staircase traverses the building, requiring students and faculty to pass through various spaces when en route to an office or classroom.
Original installations by Maya Lin, who is known for her large-scale environmental artworks and installations, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the early 1980s, are featured throughout the interior spaces. The collection of installations titled "Mapping Our Place in the World' grounds occupants in place and prompts the individual to consider their connection to the larger world.
The collection includes "Following the Potomac," a ceiling-mounted composition of glass marbles that resembles a birds-eye view of the Potomac watershed. In the main commons, a series of weather-responsive pendant lights titled "Whether Birds" change colour according to the presence of sun, clouds, snow or rain. Audio recordings of local waterways, wetlands, forests, and grasslands, made at various times of day and year, are broadcast through directional speakers above the primary staircase.
Lin also contributed to the building's roofscape with "The Sky Garden" - an outdoor terrace with elliptical pools and native plants, such as birch trees, pitch pines, ferns, and grasses. It offers opportunities for quiet conversation and respite while celebrating regional ecology and framing views of the U.S. Capitol.
