Title: George Mason University, Horizon Hall
Location of Proejct: Fairfax, Virginia
Project Completion Date: 6/22
Firm Name: Perkins and Will

Short Description: Horizon Hall is at the central crossroad of the George Mason University, Fairfax campus.

This new facility will offer students innovative and active learning environments, maker spaces and collaborative workplaces to engage with faculty and researchers to create a “Destination Mason.” The MIX is where multi-disciplinary groups of students, faculty, and alumni will come together with community and business partners to develop ideas,
research problems, craft solutions, and start companies. It is also where the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural + Physical Sciences, and Engineering will interface in new and exciting ways to create innovative solutions for modern problems.

Architect's Statement: Horizon Hall, a soaring 218,000-square-foot academic and research facility at George Mason University (GMU) that is the new home of the university’s College of Humanities & Social Sciences. The campus’ largest building houses classrooms, faculty spaces, spaces for study and reflection, and the Mason Innovation Exchange (The M.I.X), an interdisciplinary center where inventors, artisans, and entrepreneurs can create projects, exchange ideas, and find support to foster product development.

Horizon Hall also has a newly designed utilities infrastructure system and renovated outdoor plaza that rests above it. The Wilkins Plaza Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial invites students and visitors to Horizon Hall, while reflecting the contradictory legacy of the university namesake as an American founder and champion of liberty who enslaved more than 100 people at his Northern Virginia plantation.

A Launchpad to the World and the Humanities
The Horizon Hall design challenges universal truths while simultaneously fostering collaboration and discovery of similarities and differences. The building features 20 innovative active-learning classrooms, as well as maker spaces and faculty offices.

A large-scale integrated digital display in the Atrium, the “Word Wall,” acknowledges in a fresh and modern way the currency of humanities education: writing, textual analysis, and critical reasoning. Concealed behind a thin wood veneer and rendered in LED text, a constantly changing digital display of quotes and textual excerpts spans time periods, geographies, and languages. Curated by a college committee, students and faculty can use an internet portal to suggest fresh content displayed through a remotely programmed cloud-based computer platform.

In a continuous process, a quote appears on the Word Wall, while another, often from a completely different time period and cultural context, is added. The mesmerizing and provocative replacement of the written words invites viewers to contemplate continuity and contradiction across diverse cultures and languages.

Positioned next to the grand staircase that connects the lobby to the upper levels of the Atrium, another eye-catching feature is the “World Wall,” a map rendered in LED-illuminated acrylic bars that celebrates the power of the written word. The map is turned upside down to challenge perceptions of received truths. GMU’s motto “Freedom and Learning” is etched into acrylic bars in more than a hundred languages, with individual letters cast as shadows on the wall’s surface. The dappling of light and message embody perspective, change, and transformation to invite new and different ways to think about the world.

A Cathedral of Learning, Collaboration, Connection, and Reflection
An expansive six-story atrium with floor-to-ceiling windows anchors the design, both for aesthetics and to flood the interior with warm, natural light. Every level of the grand space is lined with opportunities for collaboration and individually focused study, making it one of GMU’s most popular informal learning locations. The atrium’s openness also shines ample daylight on the Mason Innovation Exchange (the M.I.X,), the University’s prime maker space and locus of entrepreneurial initiatives, putting it on view for passersby to see creativity and invention in action.

Sustainability and Wellbeing
To promote a wellness spectrum, landscape spaces adjacent to Horizon Hall were designed and developed in conjunction with GMU’s Center for Advancement and Well-Being. Through a sinuous walking path, the Labyrinth provides a calming and meditative experience, in contrast to the busy adjacent promenades and plazas of the central campus. The Labyrinth and its gardens, surrounded by grasses and perennials, also play an important ecological role in promoting an on-campus pollinator habitat. Trees and plants are labeled in support of GMU’s newly designated arboretum.

Additionally, elements of the former Wilkins Plaza landscape were repurposed within the building. Oaks planted more than 40 years ago were removed because of overcrowding and the wood was harvested and repurposed as benches within Horizon Hall, keeping alive the story of the building as an aspect of GMU history.
Within Horizon Hall, four staircases encourage a healthy alternative of walking to classrooms and offices on the higher levels. Each staircase was designed to be especially inviting. The grand staircase in the Atrium is graciously wide and sloped less steeply than the maximum allowed by code. Egress stairs feature continuous glass exterior enclosures with sweeping views that connect inside and outside experiences in a central campus setting. And bridges spanning the atrium offer collaborative spaces with chairs and tables for work and conversation.