Administrative Offices

The University of Maryland's 25-acre urban campus experienced unprecedented growth and new economic development. Older, functionally obsolete structures were replaced by new and/or significantly renewed structures. Our client came to us to relocate the Accounting, Personnel, and Facilities Departments into an existing eight-story, B & O Railroad warehouse facility that is 42 feet wide, 900 feet long and over 100 years old. UMMS leased two floors at the south end of the warehouse.

The extremely narrow building footprint was both a challenge and an opportunity. In order to give this space a unique character, imbued with the spirit of medicine and research, the plan is conceived as an abstracted strand of DNA. The double helix form and subsequent yin-yang relationship are used as a means of integrating open and closed offices and building core components. Open team conferencing areas are placed as nodes along this path and are given a sculptural quality. All materials were chosen to accentuate patterns and images found in nature, i.e., fiberglass, stained particleboard, laminated rice paper, and plain sliced maple. A custom light fixture constructed of perforated shades suspended from standard fluorescent tubes, connects the "strand" and runs the length of the project.