Yale University’s newest science building — the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Center for Molecular and Structural Biology — recently received The American Institute of Architects 1997 Honor Award for Architecture. The red-brick building, which is located at 266 Whitney Ave., was designed by Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood Architects Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts.
Linked at one end with the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory and at the other end with the Josiah Willard Gibbs Research Laboratories, the Bass Center creates a physical bridge between the sciences that reflects the intellectual bridge that has linked chemistry, biology, and biophysics since the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA more than 40 years ago.
“This large building with a technically complex program is harmonious in its overall composition, inventive in its details and efficient in its operation. It is strong and subtle — a work that is complex but not overwrought,” the jury of architects commented. “The dignified structure on Yale’s Science Hill reflects the rhythm of the internal organization and develops a quiet identity all its own.”
Completed in 1993, the four-story structure encloses one side of the quadrangle on Science Hill. By both its location and design, the building focuses on existing and anticipated movement patterns, and redirects and channels them by means of dramatic staircases, sheltered passages and bridged connections to adjacent buildings, said the jury, which awarded 27 prizes in the categories of architecture, interiors and urban design.
