Funded by a generous capital grant from the state of Maryland and gifts from the Freeing Minds campaign, Mellon Hall has undergone a transformation that re-establishes this multipurpose building as the academic, social, and creative heart of the Annapolis campus.

Signature elements of Neutra’s iconic design remain intact, but the lobby of Mellon Hall now opens into a welcoming commons area, and the Winiarski Conversation Room has been greatly improved in both acoustics and ADA accessibility. The popular student gathering space, the Fishbowl, has been upgraded to a more comfortable setting for deep discussion, private study, and faculty-student meetings. New additions include a beautiful light-filled studio theatre for the performing arts, located backstage of the auditorium, and an adjacent music rehearsal room, both outfitted with state-of-the-art acoustics.

Read more about the Mellon Hall project here.

Our Annapolis residence halls are cherished and often historically significant spaces—but time has taken its toll, and many of these buildings need considerable attention. We took an important first step through the Freeing Minds campaign with improvements to Fielding-Rumore Hall (formerly Randall).

Now the college is nearing completion on a stunning renovation to Edensword Hall (formerly Campbell) that has turned our largest residence hall into a mixed-use social hub with a bookstore and cafe, modernized infrastructure, better accessibility, and improved housing options for students. This timely renovation complements the recently restored Mellon Hall and will make the west side of campus a destination for all community members seeking great conversation.

More work remains to be done, however. With your support for the Pritzker Challenge, the Annapolis campus is crafting a plan to repair more of our residence halls, including two beautiful 19th century structures, Pinkney Hall and Paca-Carroll House.

The Annapolis campus participates in a number of initiatives and partnerships that help to ensure our natural spaces endure for future generations of Johnnies. Our campus improvement plans are continuing this trend.

For example, over half the funding for the Mellon Hall renovation was devoted to making the largest academic building on campus significantly more energy efficient. We upgraded the HVAC and electric systems and added LED lighting, a greener alternative to fluorescent lighting. Daylight and occupancy sensors have been added to renovated spaces to reduce carbon footprint. Plumbing and restroom upgrades were also completed to help conserve one of the earth’s most valuable resources and one that is inextricably intertwined with Annapolis life: water.

Our improvement plans in Annapolis are being undertaken with an eye to respecting the rich history of our campus while also meeting modern standards of comfort and safety.

Throughout the Mellon Hall renovation, for example, the college coordinated closely with the Maryland Historical Trust and with the City of Annapolis Historic Preservation Commission to preserve and retain the historic character of this building—one of the few remaining east coast examples of architect Richard Neutra’s creations. Several original features, including the exterior planter and outward-facing walls along the north lobby, had lost original Neutra character setting design—such as the low-level plantings and expansive glass exposure created to highlight a connection between inner and outside spaces. These design features have been carefully restored in the most recent renovation.

Thanks to a Freeing Minds gift from two anonymous alumni and an energy audit supported by the Class of 2019, Santa Fe has become a solar-electric campus.

In early 2023 the campus installed ground-mounted solar arrays and covered carports housing a combined total of 1,670 photovoltaic panels. Once operational, they will generate roughly all the electricity used by the campus and will eventually power 20 electric vehicle charging stations. The project is expected to yield energy savings equivalent to the annual energy use of 167 homes and make the Santa Fe campus close to carbon-neutral.

Work has now begun on a major renovation that will reinvent the Pritzker Student Center (formerly the Peterson Student Center) as the social heart of the Santa Fe campus. Students will enjoy comfortable new lounges for study and conversation, a more spacious coffee shop that connects to an expanded bookstore, and enhancements to the student-run performance venue, the Cave.

Everything that distinguishes this building, from the Territorial Revival architecture to our treasured works by designer Alexander Girard, will be wonderfully refreshed and renewed. Additionally, without a major renovation since 1964, the building will undergo important safety and accessibility improvements that will better meet the needs of our community.

Read more about the Pritzker Center project here.

The gift that funded the solar initiative also gave us the means to install energy-efficient LED lighting, update our electrical systems, and install high-efficiency boilers. These additional efforts provide annual savings of $55,000 and electricity savings of more than 358,000 kW/h.

Building on this success, the ongoing Pritzker Center renovation incorporates multiple eco-friendly elements that enhance the building’s overall sustainability. Among these improvements are low-impact landscape design, automated temperature control, and the use of sustainably sourced materials.

Future initiatives, which depend on gifts to the Pritzker Challenge, include an all-electric campus vehicle fleet and strategies for conserving an increasingly scarce resource: our campus water supply.

Recognized by architectural digest as the “prettiest college campus in America,” the cohesive aesthetic vision of our Santa Fe campus also helped earn it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. The Pritzker Student Center in particular is a destination for architecture and design fans from around the world, thanks in no small part to our territorial revival architecture and the renowned work of midcentury modernist designer Alexander Girard.

Central to our campus improvement plans in Santa Fe is the careful preservation and restoration of Girard’s masterpieces and the distinctive architectural style of our campus.