How can we create a building for the arts that is timeless and elemental, but also a product of its place, time, and purpose?

Built in 1934 to house Wellesley College’s Chemistry Department, the west wing of Pendleton Hall was repurposed for arts teaching nearly 50 years ago, but became inadequate as the arts curriculum evolved. The adjoining Jewett Art Center, designed by Paul Rudolph and built in 1958 to host music and art rooms, lacked rehearsal space for the school’s growing music program. Wellesley’s goal of consolidating the two buildings at an important campus crossroads helps establish the college’s prominent arts departments as a unified fixture on the Academic Quadrangle.

Pendleton’s classrooms and corridors were cleared and converted into open, evolving, and efficient 21st century art studios, while an addition that unites the two buildings makes room for the music program with an acoustically tuned rehearsal hall, salon, and classroom. Honoring and extending a nascent planning vision, the addition frames the western edge of the Quad as Wellesley’s new front door to the arts.

Board-form Texture & Pattern

Physical and digital prototypes were developed to study how board-form concrete could evoke the texture and dynamic shadowplay of the surrounding landscape.

Board-form Texture & Pattern

Pendleton West’s board-formed concrete walls reference the adjacent forest while conversing with existing campus architecture. Achieving the desired natural wood grain expression required systematic investigation of materials, surface treatments, and patterning strategies that could be successfully executed during construction.

KieranTimberlake conducted extensive physical prototyping testing three wood species—Douglas Fir, cedar, and pine—with various surface preparations. The team cast samples evaluating rough-sawn versus planed boards, wire brushing, sandblasting, and different sealers. Douglas Fir consistently produced the highest quality casts with minimal defects and well-defined grain patterns. Critically, the research discovered that sandblasting dramatically enhanced grain visibility by removing softer summerwood, and surprisingly, sandblasted boards could produce excellent casts without sealers—eliminating discoloration concerns while reducing costs.

The investigation revealed that planed boards alone created surfaces too subtle and uniform, while exclusively sandblasted boards appeared visually overwhelming. The solution: randomly mixing refined planed boards with coarser sandblasted ones, creating dynamic surfaces that read as authentically board-formed without monotony. Butt-jointed boards set at slightly varying depths (1/8″) further articulated individual planks while preventing flat, monolithic appearances.

Translating these findings to building-scale facades required computational tools. The team developed custom algorithms generating randomized board patterns within strict construction constraints: no adjacent boards of equal width, specific length increments, strategic placement of odd widths away from corners, and controlled distribution of sandblasted boards and depth variations. The tool produced annotated elevations clearly communicating design intent to contractors while enabling rapid iteration through pattern options.

Physical mockups established optimal material treatments and aesthetic character, while digital tools ensured constructability across complex facade geometries. Together, this integrated research approach produced board-formed concrete walls that honor craft traditions, echo the surrounding woodland, and will age gracefully alongside Wellesley’s historic neo-gothic architecture—demonstrating how systematic investigation can validate material expressions that are both timeless and specific to place.

Through physical and digital prototyping the team determined that patterns combining planed and rough sawn boards of varying sizes allowed us to achieve a serene appearance that came alive through the inteaction of depth and shadow. We developed digital layout algorithms that allowed us to explore various distributions of board widths while ensuring consistent overall dimensions and variations in depth and width between adjacent boards.

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Nature in Materials

Materials and textures throughout the project reflect an immediate and evolving interplay between site and building. Exposed concrete walls converse with Jewett’s elegantly cast columns and the carved neo-gothic details nearby. Wood grain impressions in concrete echo the nearby forest. Bush-hammered granite walls conjure ancient craft tradition and invite lichens and moss to grow on its surface. Inside, natural surfaces encourage graceful aging and allow for minimal maintenance and replacement regimens.

Wood is a unifying interior lining. In combination with red fabric ceilings, it provides warm contrast and counterpoint to the board formed concrete walls. Tall windows and discrete portals invite and reflect the natural woodlands inside. The rehearsal and concert spaces are inspired by the inside of a grand piano, with string-like wooden slats overlaying a red acoustic fabric that allows flexible music performance within an elegant, meditative space. Inside and out, the building is receptive to the changing natural backdrop of the site and will age in kind.

Integrating the Arts

The unification of Pendleton and Jewett extends the college’s arts teaching, which crosses boundaries between the visual arts, art history, criticism, and music. By modernizing and maximizing existing space, Pendleton West now hosts additional programs like digital arts and media. Large, windowed, open studios let the art programs overlap and expand as needed. Building system upgrades enhance the environmental health and safety of students engaged in sculpture, painting, printmaking, and more.

With new passageways through and between the academic quad and arts buildings, Pendleton West and Jewett Arts Center serve a new generation of art students in a building that is rooted in its place and celebrates the play of light on materials, waves of sound, and passage of time.