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Window seats in the thickness of these walls become special places. Conceived as a cost-saving measure, the walls in execution have become both instructive and delightful.

Changes through Time

On the exterior, one-inch (2.5-centimeter) horizontal standing seams in the weathering copper envelope are intended to enliven the facade with a rhythm of shadows, and, in winter, to celebrate the season with sparkling white stripes of snow.

As the building's copper skin begins to acquire its verdigris patina, Holl hopes the future will see the CALA building becoming more integrated with its environment.

"I hope the four different landscapes defined by the geometry of the building will be taken up," he says. "I hope the yellow vegetation of the eastern garden will some day be realized. I hope the students will build experimental constructions in the gravel courtyard, a place where weathering elements could be studied in time."

Holl initially designed the CALA addition more than a decade ago, the original scheme winning a Progressive Architecture award in 1990. By the time the project achieved funding priority from the university, the money initially budgeted was no longer enough, and Holl redesigned the project.

"I feel the final, smaller addition works much better than the original," he says, "After 13 years of reflection, the final scheme is more economical and more direct."

Holl gives credit for the fruition of the project to the leadership of two successive deans at CALA, Harrison Fraker and Tom Fisher. "The positive developments," he says, "can be attributed as much to the client leadership as to the architect."

Viewing this built result, after a recent disappointment in which Holl was selected by jury to design a new architecture school at Cornell University, and then, after a process of meetings and adjustments, subsequently rejected by tenured faculty, he says he sees afresh "how fragile, how very fragile, the art of architecture is."

Katharine Logan is a Vancouver-based designer and writer.

The College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota, by Steven Holl Architects, seeks to enrich the educational experience of architecture. Photo: Warren Bruland In time, gardens between the building's four arms will be developed to express the four seasons. Photo: Warren Bruland A main-floor auditorium is designed for accessibility and flexibility. Photo: Warren Bruland A large, open loft provides third-floor studio space. Photo: Warren Bruland Extensive structural glazing, as in the library, creates a diffuse light suggestive of a shoji-screened room. Photo: Warren Bruland A stair leads through a double-height entry hall to the library above. Photo: Warren Bruland   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.