Mills Hall and the Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies

• Project highlights:Mills Hall and the Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies 

• Architecture firm:  HGA
• Owner:  Bowdoin College
• Location:  Brunswick, Maine
• Category:  General
• Project site: Previously developed
• Building program type(s):  Education - college/university (campus-level)

The newest addition to Bowdoin College’s campus in Maine, this project offers new flexible classrooms and collaborative spaces for students as well as a cross-disciplinary hub dedicated to Arctic research and education. These two new buildings, which face one another and anchor the southeast corner of campus, are the first commercially-scaled mass timber buildings in the state, a choice that architect, contractor, and client were enthusiastic to pursue due to mass timber’s ecological benefits and the state’s identity as a “working forest.”

Though distinct in appearance and program, both buildings echo one another with their steeply pitched rooflines and a consistent structural expression throughout the exteriors. The structure has an expected carbon reduction of 75% compared to a comparable steel frame. Both buildings were decoupled from the campus steam plant and feature a 100% electric heating and cooling system that is connected to the college’s nearby photovoltaic array. 

The college has a long history of Arctic research that stretches back to student and faculty expeditions in the late 1800s. Clad in black plank masonry, the Gibbons Center is the more introverted of the pair. It provides a new home for Bowdoin’s Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, which had been in a retrofitted campus space that lacked accessibility and environmental controls for its growing collection. With precise environmental controls that support anthropological and archeological research, the center boasts engaging space for the museum’s exhibitions and collections. Teaching spaces on the first floor allow curators to share items in the college’s special collections with faculty and students during classes. Below, research labs are outfitted to prepare and analyze specimens collected from faculty and student trips. 

Directly across from the center, the 30,000-square-foot Mills Hall provides updated tech-friendly classrooms and new homes for the college’s computational studies and anthropology departments, encouraging collaborative research in those growing fields. A supplementary 300-person event room can accommodate campus gatherings, and a 60-person cinema and hosts film studies courses and campuswide screenings. The building is named for president emeritus Barry Mills, who has remarked that the building embodies ingenuity, innovation, and risk-taking, three values that are embedded in Bowdoin’s mission. 

Surrounding the buildings is a landscape that takes its cues from the tundra and ice flows of the Arctic. The design team used excess soil from excavation to sculpt mounds that resemble snow drifts, while salvaged marble blocks from a regional quarry serve as seating and site elements. A grove of white pines surrounding the site were preserved and supplemented with new trees, ensuring future generations will be able to enjoy this new and distinctive Bowdoin environment.