After completing a comprehensive plan to improve and expand the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School while staying within their existing space, the first project undertaken was the complete renovation of the school’s primary lecture halls. The four rooms, dating to the 1960s, were each capable of fitting 100 students, but their configuration which put professors in a corner of the room was inflexible and left professors feeling distant from students. VMA reconfigured the rooms in a horseshoe configuration to better support the school’s Socratic method of teaching and maximize interaction between students and faculty. The new seating tiers were designed to provide clear sightlines and wheelchair accessibility, without the mess and noise of removing any of the original concrete seating tiers. A variety of lighting options, careful acoustical treatment, and extensive AV technology were added to the room to support a variety of teaching methods and special events in what became the school’s preferred teaching environment.

PUBLICATIONS

• "Inside Look: Learning Spaces" by Kristen Domonell. University Business Magazine, 22 January 2013.