Located on the eastern edge of campus, Vanderbilt University’s John Seigenthaler Center is home to robust public programming centered around free speech as well as large-scale team meetings and university office suites. Named after John Seigenthaler, a prominent defender of First Amendment rights, the building has a rich history related to free speech, open dialogue, and civil discourse. Over the years, the center has been expanded and renovated to address the needs of its different occupants, but that resulted in spaces that were formally and experientially disjointed. With the transfer of operation of the Seigenthaler Center to Vanderbilt University in 2023, there was an opportunity to think comprehensively about the current and future needs of the center and propose a unified design approach.
The design approach focuses on materiality—natural and recycled—lighting and ceiling strategies, and built-in and flexible furnishings to provide a cohesive experience across the building. An art program further unifies the building while also connecting it with the ethos of Kirkland Hall, the campus’s main administration building, whose renovation was also led by this design team.
The first floor of the Center includes a 112-seat auditorium and an adjacent green room. The auditorium is clad in vertical wood slats with acoustical backing, creating a warm environment while incorporating new theatrical lighting, sound system, projection, and an accessible stage. The new wood seats are upholstered in plant-based faux leather and provide a subtle array of sizes for enhanced choice in comfort. With a fully equipped in-room technical booth supported by a remote AV room, the auditorium is able to host a diverse set of programs. The adjacent large room—the Forum—supports overflow crowds for the auditorium, doubling the seating capacity. Multiple lighting settings, flexible furnishings, and acoustical treatments allow this space to seamlessly transition into a space that hosts board dinners or other evening events with warm, indirect lighting and technology that disappears when not needed. Other spaces located on the first floor include classrooms of diverse sizes that can be reconfigured for different uses and capacities as well as a catering pantry, break-out rooms, and an outdoor terrace. The newly renovated bathrooms throughout the building use solid surface made out of 100% post-consumer recycled plastic from household appliances.
The second floor includes a boardroom, a private prefunction space, and a lounge area. Three large backlit acoustical ceiling surfaces anchor the wood-clad boardroom, providing evenly distributed lighting and visually increasing the floor-to-ceiling height of the room. MAS Studio designed a custom boardroom table that seats up to fifty with a central galley for presenters to stroll up and down, addressing board members directly. Support monitors are also distributed along this central galley for ease of viewing on-screen content and remote participants. Built-in banquettes located along the entrances to the boardroom allow for extra seating. The private prefunction and lounge areas continue the use of warm and natural materials, with wood floors and walls and marble countertops and backsplashes in the built-in credenza areas. Also on the second floor there are a series of office suites and supportive spaces. The office suites are given a new standard material, lighting, and furniture template for the university departments who will move into the building.
The design of the spaces is enhanced by state-of-the art meeting technology in the auditorium, forum, boardroom, and flexible classroom spaces. The lighting throughout the entire building has been updated, as well as the mechanical systems and distribution.
Art Strategies collaborated with Vanderbilt University and MAS Studio to showcase items from the university’s collection and commission new work from international and local artists. Artists include Stanley Whitney, Hank Willis Thomas, Ann Hamilton, Dyani White Hawk, Ai Wei Wei, among others. The art is displayed in dialogue with the architecture of the building.
Outside, a series elements of the main façade are simplified for a more elegant arrival, setting the stage for future improvements. Those include a new main entrance as well as new terrace doors and windows, new column cladding, and consistent paint across the building.
This project was an opportunity to explore how to design a coherent interior space out of disjointed parts using materiality, lighting and ceiling strategies, and furniture.
