The Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) has selected Herzog & de Meuron to lead the expansion and transformation of Gund Hall, the school’s primary facility. Beyer Blinder Belle (BBB) will serve as architect of record.

The project will integrate new space for cross-disciplinary collaboration into the existing structure, which was designed by GSD alum John Andrews and opened in 1972. The expansion will not significantly expand the building’s footprint.

“We have always admired the intellectual spirit and free-thinking atmosphere of the school with its mythic Gund Hall building,” said Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron in a statement. “We envision transforming this building by excavating, adding, and connecting spaces that will support communication and exchange within the GSD community.” The founding partners of the firm have taught, lectured, and held exhibitions at the school since the 1980s.

BBB recently renovated two residential buildings at Harvard, the Winthrop and Adams Houses, and the firm’s work at the university spans 14 years. “The Gund Hall project goes beyond expansion, to re-visioning a building that is both professionally important and personally meaningful to us as designers,” says BBB partner Elizabeth Leber. “It resonates with our firm’s philosophy of sustainable transformation of existing buildings to adapt to many types of change.”

The architects expect to complete concept and schematic design development in the fall of 2018.