Buck Hall, New Theater Building

New Gateway Between College & City

The Williams Arts Campus is comprised of the new theater building, Buck Hall, and the renovation of the adjacent Film and Media Studies Mohican Building. Located on the campus edge and city entry, the Williams Arts Campus forms a pivotal gateway between Lafayette College and the City of Easton. KSS facilitated a collaborative visioning process between Easton and the College, bringing together numerous community stakeholders to gather feedback on transforming the front door of Lafayette’s campus into a vibrant arts hub. 

KSS approached the project from the scale of the city, emphasizing connectivity to downtown Easton while preserving and protecting the sensitive natural environment surrounding the Bushkill Creek. Situated along Easton’s main thoroughfare, Buck Hall is elevated from the floodplain, creating a suitably dramatic statement for the new gateway to campus while also implementing stormwater management. The building is a billboard for Lafayette and the arts; large-scale signage across one of the building’s pavilions establishes its identity in a grand fashion. The building houses a black box theater, 180-seat cinema, technology-enabled classroom, dressing rooms, and scene and costume shops. Located across the street from Buck Hall, the Mohican Building features three major teaching spaces, a conference room, a new television studio, advanced editing suites, labs, a studio theater, offices, and support spaces. Together, these projects accomplish one of Lafayette’s key goals—to create a cohesive environment for Lafayette’s Film and Media Studies program—and also create formal and informal opportunities to welcome, engage, and inspire students, audiences, and the community at large.