Architecture Operations D.P.C. (ArcOps) has been awarded an AIA Honor Awarded for two strategic projects recently completed in Duke University’s West Campus. The first project is a new entry for the Bryan Center, a Brutalist 1970’s building that serves as the ‘student center’. The addition gives the dated building a significant visual upgrade while bringing in a significant amount of daylight and solving exiting accessibility and egress issues. The second project is a pedestrian bridge that is adjacent to the new West Union building by Grimshaw Architects.

The bridge/pavilion is the primary pedestrian infrastructure that connects the traditional west campus quad to the contemporary buildings in the new student life district. The primary challenge for the project was to make the space below the bridge an inviting gathering place activated by light. The result is a thin, elegant bridge deck supported by polished stainless steel columns and punctuated with prismatic glass lenses that collect and bring day light below the bridge during the day and broadcast light above in the evening. The spaces below the bridge are programmed as an outdoor lounge space and a beer garden .