In pictures: timber and transparency combine in TenBerke’s Kathleen McCartney Hall for Smith College

Kathleen McCartney Hall, a 15,000-square-foot mass timber building, brings together two campus institutions – the Lazarus Center for Career Development and the Wurtele Center for Collaborative Leadership – under a shared roof. The aim of co-locating the centres in a prominent site on campus is to amplify their collective work, encouraging students to find their own voice and articulate their leadership strengths as part of their career preparation.

Aim of approachablity 

A key goal of the design was to make the institutions approachable and reduce intimidation. To that end, the building is light, airy, open and filled with flexible and comfortable spaces. Large windows let passers-by see what is going on inside, with the aim of sparking curiosity in students to explore the building for themselves. Another hope is that students might come in for one purpose and leave with another. 

Named for a former college president, the hall is perched on a hillside overlooking Paradise Pond, a favourite natural feature of the campus. Its textured brick facade nods to the masonry of its historic campus context.

Landscape design

The design includes outdoor “rooms”, both within the landscape and on the low roof with views to the pond. A new network of paths winds through the site, providing universal access through the challenging topography and better connecting the pond to the rest of campus. 

A sustainable planting typology was developed in partnership with landscape architects MNLA, who have produced a 20-year campus landscape masterplan. And learning opportunities to engage with the project’s comprehensive hydrology system are offered.

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Sustainable aspects of the design

Sustainability lies at the heart of the all-electric building, which is heated by ground-source heat pump. A responsibly sourced mass timber structural system designed in collaboration with engineers Thornton Tomasetti, decreases embodied carbon emissions. A flexible floor plan allows for future repurposing of spaces, and a commitment to healthy materials has guided the selection of materials and furnishings.

Women-led teams

Appropriately enough at a woman’s college, the design and construction teams on the project were women-led. Women from the TenBerke, Consigli, and Thornton Tomasetti project teams led tours of the construction site at the 2025 Women Who Build Conference, which was held at the college.