St. John's College students arriving for the fall semester will notice changes on campus, with more to come.

For instance, students immersing themselves in the language of the ancient Greeks and the philosophies of Kierkegaard and Hegel no doubt should enjoy comfy carpet underfoot.

A world-renowned weaver and designer has helped students and other visitors to the school's library with just that. The project was completed earlier this summer.

The talents of Jack Lenor Larsen were tapped to reoutfit the school's Faith and John Gaw Meem Library.

"High-traffic areas are covered in a brown tweed carpet," reads a partial description of the library's new carpeting. "Broad bands of beige ribbed carpet run across aisles between the stacks — affording a gentle foot massage to scholars."

This year is the 20th anniversary of the library, named for the Meems, who were instrumental in bringing St. John's College to Santa Fe. (The mother institution is in Annapolis, Md.)

"Because of the anniversary, we thought it was time to redo the carpets," said Michael P. Peters, St. John's Santa Fe campus president.

"One of our great friends and supporters, board member Ted Rogers, is acquainted with Jack Lenor Larsen and thought this might be a project he would enjoy being part of, because the library is kind of the jewel of the campus.

"He designed all of the library's carpets to fit in with the overall decor, then he gave us suggestions about modified paint colors and lighting."

Larsen, born in 1927 in Seattle, began weaving in the 1940s. He earned a master of fine arts degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art and, in 1952, opened a New York City studio. He became an innovator in adapting ethnic design themes into the contemporary fabrics world. Fortune smiled on him when the influential architect/designer Marcel Breuer used some of his hand-woven textiles.

Subsequent commissions included fabric treatments for architects Louis Kahn and Frank Lloyd Wright. He also designed and produced the first fabrics for jet airliners (Pan Am and Braniff), the first stretch upholstery and the first printed velvets.

Larsen has visited Santa Fe many times, and curated an exhibition at Bellas Artes Gallery in the 1980s.

For the Meem Library project, he used a small loom at his New York home to work out materials, colors, textures and designs.

The library sports several carpet types in different areas.

Perhaps the most distinctive is the large central panel in the main reading room, a beige, textured weave with a grid pattern of small, Greek crosses.

Another new campus element is the 10,340-square-foot Betty and Norman Levan Hall.

The building consolidates elements of the graduate program, previously housed in various spaces around the campus.

The entry of the new building is dramatic and contemporary, featuring a two-story portal and lots of glass.

"We purposefully wanted to make a transition between the historic character of the campus and the desire to have a light-filled, welcoming lantern that is Levan Hall," said architect David Lake.

"Effectively, we took a cue from John Gaw Meem's architecture and did kind of a cubist stucco mass and then added the glazed, two-story portal as a modern interpretation," he said.

The open two-story space provides a grand public space to welcome visitors and for the college to hold formal events. It's also just kind of cool-looking.

"There's something great in the visual relief of moving away from the kind of compressive nature of a lot of Santa Fe architecture, particularly when you walk in and see right through the building out to the spectacular views," said Lake, a principal of the firm Lake|Flato Architects of San Antonio.

"There was definitely some nervousness on the part of the Historic Design Review Board about the portal," he said. "I think Santa Fe needs to be a little more amenable to these, I think, poetic gestures, because we are building in the 21st century."

The architects wanted to clad the portal with metal, but as part of the back-and-forth with the college on design issues, it was decided the portal would be stuccoed.

"It was a dance," Lake said.

The college, architects and Sarcon Construction are aiming to achieve "Gold" in the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification.

Among the green features are a small, rooftop photovoltaic array to generate some of the building's electricity; thermal mass (in masonry walls) and ventilation instead of air conditioning; sustainable cork floors; and large windows to use sunlight and lower the use of artificial lighting during the day.

Some Levan Hall rooms were designed to serve multiple functions, which allowed a 15 percent reduction in building size and materials use, compared to original specifications.

"The college wanted some very specific, single-use spaces," said Steve Raike, project manager with Lake|Flato. "We convinced them that it was better to build spaces that could be used throughout the day. (Students in the college's Graduate Institute tend to be on campus in the evening.)

In another variation from a building strictly designed for the graduate program, the architects added general-purpose rooms to make the building a more active part of the campus.

"A lot of the learning at this campus happens outside of the classroom, so to provide an area where faculty and students can interact out in the environment was really important," Raike said. "This building really augmented the heart of their campus where a lot of that informal learning takes place."

Lake|Flato Architects has designed four houses in the Santa Fe area, but this is the firm's first nonresidential building in New Mexico.

President Peters anticipates Levan Hall will open this month. It will be dedicated during homecoming events Sept. 25.

In spring 2011, St. John's plans to build a new residence center.

"The new dorm will be across from what we call the lower dorms, just west of the library," Peters said. "The need for this building was stimulated by the fact that with our existing dormitories we can only house about two-thirds of our students on campus."

The required undergraduate curriculum for all St. John's students includes two evening classes. Although St. John's is a residential college, some students currently must commute to southern Santa Fe, where housing is more affordable, at 9:30 or 10 p.m., "so there's a real strong desire to have more campus housing," Peters said.

The new residence center will be designed by David Perrigo, who served as project manager with Lorn Tryk Architects on the Meem Library project two decades ago.

Peters emphasized that the Meem Library is open to the public. The collection of some 70,000 volumes is strong in ancient and modern classics of European and Eastern literature, philosophy, science and math.

Contact Paul Weideman at 9868-3043 or pweideman@sfnewmexican.com.



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