Leers Weinzapfel Associates to renovate, expand the Williams College Davis Center

Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., is set to begin a project to renovate and expand the Davis Center, a facility that acts as the physical, intellectual, and programmatic heart of the school’s efforts to build an inclusive community on Williams’ campus.

Leers Weinzapfel Associates, in collaboration with J. Garland Enterprises, will expand the 18,650-sf Davis Center to 26,350 sf with a new addition. The project will also include comprehensive renovations of the adjacent Rice and Jenness Houses. The resulting facility will feature universal access and increased space to accommodate Minority Coalition student gatherings, meetings, dialogue, classes, socializing, studying, and programming.

The new and renovated center will include modernized space built for current and future needs. The building will be a hub for the education, activism, community building, academic exploration, well-being, and celebration that happens within.

The project will reflect the domestic scale of the neighboring Rice and Jenness Houses with an open, glazed ground floor that acts as an invitation to broad campus engagement. A roofscape references the peaks and valleys of the mountain ranges that surround the college.

Additionally, the Center will house a new large gathering and event space to host the wide range of Davis Center programs, student group meeting spaces at a variety of sizes, staff office space to accommodate program growth, and improved kitchens for cultural and student group use.

The Davis Center is slated for completion in fall 2023.