New York, New York, USA
Seat of the Department of Africana Studies and the Rites and Reason Theatre at Brown University for nearly 50 years, Churchill House has a rich history as the hub for education, research, and performance arts centered around the African diaspora.
This project provides expanded space for departmental programming, including a renovated theater and production spaces, faculty, and community event spaces.
Brown University Churchill House by Marble Fairbanks Architects, won an American Architecture Award 2025 from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
A two-story addition, finished in black and gray steel panels, projects beyond the historic brick facade of the original building, adding new faculty and student lounge spaces and faculty offices.
Visually connected to the street, the addition provides transparency and connectedness to the surrounding campus conveying the important work transpiring within.
The building entry is reoriented from its historic approach to a new terrace and ramp entrance along The Walk, a vibrant campus green space connecting Churchill House to the arts district.
Enhancing the visibility of the department on campus, and improving accessibility from the street, this project supports Brown University as it works toward goals of diversity and inclusion, sustainability and wellness, and community.
The reconfigured entrance leads into a new lobby, where a rediscovered skylight is visible above a double-height connecting stair.
A new community Living Room on the entry level is a space for casual meetings with flexible furniture and integrated technologies to support a range of more intimate events.
The classroom that previously occupied this location is now located on the lower level, opening up this floor for arrival, access to the theatre, and informal gatherings that enhance natural community building.
Along the lobby’s southern wall, the theater entrance is framed with a custom panel perforated with a fractal pattern.
The fractal, a geometric pattern with inlaid shapes that grow and shrink in scale, references patterns used in West African textiles and cultural artifacts.
This fractal is also recalled in the supergraphics on select feature walls throughout the building.
The historic Rites and Reason Theatre, among the longest-running Black theater companies in the U.S., has been completely updated with enhanced lighting, refined acoustics, upgraded seating, and new back-of-house support spaces.
The presence of the theater within the department is highlighted with a pattern mirroring that on the façade of the addition, along their shared wall.
The design increases visibility of the department, visually connecting key program areas and the surrounding campus.
The design conveys the rich history of the Department of Africana Studies and the Rites and Reason Theatre, and through this transformation acknowledges the past while forging a new path into the future.
Supporting both Brown University’s academic and local communities, this project provides spaces that foster community gathering, while serving as a house for the sharing of important stories that connect us to the past and puts Churchill House in dialogue with the other celebrated arts venues on campus.
Project: Brown University Churchill House
Architects: Marble Fairbanks Architects
Design Team: Karen Fairbanks, Scott Marble, Tanya Gershon, Jason Roberts, Diego Arango, Elliot Park, Kristy Cho, and Brian Castro
Design Consultants: Mario Gooden Studio
Landscape Architects: Stimson Landscape Architects
General Contractor: Shawmut Design and Construction
Clients: Brown University and Shawmut Design and Construction
Photographers: Warren Jagger
