Alumni Hall

The LEED Gold Alumni Hall, the university’s original student union, now supports a wide range of activities — like tutoring, catered dining, meetings, studying and socializing — while maintaining the integrity of the building’s historic architecture.

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN Completed: 2013 30,000 sf LEED Gold Certified

Photography by © Richard Mandelkorn Photography

Vanderbilt University’s Alumni Hall is a 1925 Tudor Revival assembly building that was designed and constructed as a Memorial to students and faculty who lost their lives in World War I. Elaborate brick and limestone elevations are supported on a reinforced concrete frame; the windows are leaded glass in steel casement sashes; and the roofs are standing seam copper.

Our project team helped develop a program to take advantage of the central location of this small building with its detailed rooms and finishes. Exterior additions on the rear façade provide new mechanical, life safety and accessibility improvements. The building is small, and the introduction of new mechanical systems where historic interiors are so sensitive to alteration was one of the main design challenges.

Expanded event terraces, an executive classroom, music lounge, exercise room, writing center, faculty office suite and a boutique café are part of the new program.