The Brooder House was originally a chicken coop from the farm that was donated to start Bennington college in 1932. It has a strong vernacular presence with gable ends, wood siding, field stone foundation and a slate roof. 

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Previously housing faculty apartments, Centerline was tasked with the endeavor of transforming this building into a new occupancy type for Health and Psychological Services. The program consisted of office spaces, exam rooms, convalesce spaces and support spaces. 

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Many factors influenced the design. These included a full assessment of the existing programs while at the same time providing opportunity for growth of the student population. A major challenge of the design was to accomplish the project within a very constrained timeline. 

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Although the building required a complete gut rehab to meet the programmatic, energy and code requirements, we felt it was important to maintain the vernacular language historically relevant to the building. We also wanted to express the agricultural influence of the buildings history, demonstrated through the simple screening of the main entrance.