Savannah College of Art & Design

SCAD Museum and Design Studios

Lord Aeck Sargent collaborated with the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and Sottile & Sottile to design a multi-functional museum and arts facility supporting SCAD's mission to excel in the teaching of fine arts, applied arts, and architectural education. The facility includes new contemporary museum gallery space constructed inside the historic ruins of the Old North Sheds train depot. Included as well at the upper level are open design studios, a 250-seat auditorium along with a central public lobby marked by a mid-block channel-glass clad tower. The design rejuvenates the Old North Sheds area, introducing an Art Walk and Sculpture Courtyard, a Turner Street gallery in the form of glass jewel boxes that set into the brick ruins of the original structure. A long linear gallery and event space occupies the former train platform as a daylit space overlooking the sculpture garden. The project was undertaken in association with local architect Neil Dawson.

LOCATION

Savannah, GA

SERVICES

Architecture, Interiors, Space Planning

SIZE

96,000 sf

PROJECT TYPE

Adaptive Reuse, Learning Spaces, Museum, Arts

"The project is stunning and the galleries provide SCAD wonderful new opportunities in which to fulfill our mission."

— Martin Smith, Executive Director for Design and New Construction

Honor Award

American Institute of Architects

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Excellence in Preservation Award

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation

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Best of the Best Award and Education & Research Forum Award

IIDA Georgia

This facility is a culmination of many visions for reinvigorating the very urban fabric of its west boundary district location. The design solution embraces the industrial roots of the historic antebellum rail yards that once were the thread connecting Savannah and its port to the blossoming economy of the south. From the Civil war through WWII, people and stories that passed through the rail complex are the inspiration for this shed to be reborn as a cultural and educational center. The facility’s design aesthetic contrasts the new and the old, the modern with the historic materials, and layers the academic, cultural and public realms, positioning it firmly as an anchor for the area’s urban renewal.