At George Washington University’s new Milken Institute School of Public Health, the central atrium is a primary feature. One recent graduate likened it to the “Hogwarts stairs” from the Harry Potter series.
The central atrium integrates the administrative and teaching halves of the building. This enables workspaces deep within the building’s core to receive natural daylight, which falls from a skylight opening in the penthouse level to the basement floor 8 stories below, and reduces the need for artificial light. The extensive use of glass walls and open galleries around the atrium openings affords an array of views across, up and down through the different floor levels. Less than 20-feet wide in most places, the central atrium is intimate enough for conversations between occupants to occur from one side to another, and from floor to floor.
Located along Boston’s famed Emerald Necklace designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the Klarman Building responds to the presence of this green space to create a state-of-the-art center for inpatient care and healing. In addition to extending aspects of nature into the building through orienting views and finishes, the Sky Garden allows patients, family and staff to find healing in the landscape.
Happy World Landscape Month!
Read more about the project on our blog (link in bio).
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