The roof
The Alumni Center Committee gave a clear directive. This place must be felt as a home away from home for visiting alumni. A sheltering sloped roof and generous porch are natural expressions of this welcoming spirit. The roof and porch of the addition are a modern retelling of the Georgian Revival story of campus.

Columns
The old columns of University House are tall and grand, recalling earlier eras of formality and grandeur. The new columns of the addition, in contrast, are strong and muscular. They have a lot of visual work to do in holding up the heavy slate roof, and they give personality to the porch as well.

Dormer windows
Bay windows in the roof along the north façade contain staff offices and conference rooms. These little studies give a sense of inhabitation to the building, day or night. The high roof windows, which echo the flat portion of University House’s roof, march across the entire building, illuminating and unifying the place where Alumni Council meets with the Alumni Association workplace. At night, the Alumni Center will appear as a lantern to passersby, through illumination of the dormers and porch windows.

Gardens
Visitors love to come back to Penn State to be part of Central Pennsylvania landscape. The Alumni Center contributes open space to campus by preserving the original grounds of University House and adding terraced gardens. A landscaped parking court serves as both drop-off space and versatile outdoor room. A garden associated with Robb Hall has a casual perennial borders, a pergola for shade and a lawn that can be tented for alumni events.

Courtyard
The southern courtyard was a happy result of the process of joining University House to the addition. It is a place for the casual meeting of town and gown, students and alumni. The sitting wall was made of limestone salvaged from the old garage of University House.

Walkway for students
Involving students in the life of the Alumni Center was an important goal. Paths of student travel through the site were maintained, so that the Center can be felt as an enrichment of campus life from a student perspective. One walkway is provided from College Avenue through the courtyard and under the link between University House and the addition. Another walkway is provided to the west of the building, which ties into the front porch.