The design explores the idea of path in a gathering place, and how path might encourage people to move up close to a lecturer, resulting in a sense of intimacy and immediacy.

The existing Art Gallery consisted of a four-story 1920's Renaissance-style building with a 1950 addition designed by Louis Kahn. The only site available for new construction adjacent to the Gallery was Weir Court, a secluded courtyard long considered beautiful for its shape, sense of enclosure and intimacy, and its proximity to the Kahn addition.

The program called for 8,000 square feet of new exhibition space, administrative offices and a 400-seat state-of-the-art lecture hall, which was to be linked to the Art Gallery, but also have its own public entrance. The solution places the new auditorium under Weir Court, preserving three giant elms in the court that are integral to its success as an enclave of tranquil beauty.

The new auditorium is an intimate space for both large and small groups. It replaces an existing two-story lecture hall that was renovated into two floors of new gallery space. Gallery ceilings integrate the lighting within the structural grid, allowing for flexibility in the exhibit areas, as well as echoing the tetrahedral ceiling in the Kahn addition. The former sunken sculpture court on York Street was converted into gallery space through construction of a sky-lit roof, thus preserving the west facade of the Kahn building.

The auditorium is also reached through a network of existing stairs and passageways leading to Weir Court, which permit the new hall to be used when the gallery is closed.