Category
Institutional

Subcategories
Renovation

Location
Princeton, NJ

Project Completion
2020

Project Size
2,000 SF

Services
Architectural & Interior Design

After nearly a century without major renovations, the building that houses the offices and library stacks for the Institute for Advanced Study — the independent post-doctoral research center in Princeton, N.J. where Albert Einstein famously spent his late career — has undergone a partial interior redesign led by JZA+D. The Georgian-style Fuld Hall, which served as the backdrop for the 1994 romantic comedy I.Q., may be the most iconic academic building in the country not associated with a university. JZA+D approached with reverence the project to realign and update 2000 square feet of the interior, with the additional mission to provide a template for a future complete interior renovation.
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The entire periodical room was removed, and new door openings punched from the hall to create space for three new member offices. The design replaced a mid-20th-Century library stack with four more member offices, and one new faculty office. Old architectural drawings indicate this latter area may have included Einstein’s own faculty office before it was converted to stacks in 1984.

Renovation of the librarian and assistant librarian offices involved a tiny but significant 160-square-foot “secure stack” which houses the Institute’s most fragile volumes. Original millwork and shelving salvaged from the periodical room were reinstalled in the secure stack area of the offices. The palette of durable finishes and furnishings included new carpet floor tiling, LED lamps and fixtures, and updated drop ceiling systems.

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