The Duffield Hall expansion project is located at the intersection of Campus and Hoy Roads—a critical campus gateway for visitors and new students. The project bridges existing Pew Engineering Quad buildings and the school’s expansion: Bill and Melinda Gates Hall and the new College of Computing and Information Science (CIS) building and quad.

The challenge of the site that slopes 20 feet and is bordered by non-compliant sidewalks is to create meaningful places within a series of ramps with retaining walls and stairs. Programmatically, the existing Duffield Hall is the heart of the College of Engineering student life with a large flexible atrium that serves as a social gathering space for clubs and small study groups. The proposed project expands the existing atrium with visual and programmatic connections to instructional labs. A wide plaza extends the social energy from the Duffield Expansion towards the new CIS campus. An accessible perimeter walk under a building canopy provides cover access to all doors during the winter months. Sloped walks replace non-compliant sidewalks and are aligned with existing desire lines to the north. Planting reinforces the building geometry and circulation routes. The result is a seamless expansion for the Quad and an accessible connection to the rest of campus.