Notre Dame School of Architecture - Facilities

Facilities

The School of Architecture is housed primarily in Bond Hall, a large building on the Notre Dame campus formerly known as the Lemonnier Library. The building served as the principal library of the entire campus from its construction in 1917 until Hesburgh Memorial Library was constructed in 1964. Bond Hall can be distinguished on campus by its white Indiana limestone exterior, classical Ionic archway, and round-arched windows. The building was renovated and expanded to become Bond Hall between 1995 and 1997 under the guidance of Thomas Gordon Smith, the Department Chair from 1989 to 1998 and current faculty member.

Bond Hall contains studio space for both undergraduate and students, several classrooms, and an auditorium that seats approximately 100 people. There is a gallery space that contains the School's stone cast collection and serves as the School's exhibition and project review space. The basement contains a computer lab for students who complete projects in Revit, AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, and SketchUp. There are offices for the administration and the faculty of the School and a small eatery called Café Poche.

The center of the building (the former courtyard of the Lemonnier Library) houses the Architecture Library, which is part of the University of Notre Dame's Hesburgh Libraries. The collection, comprising approximately 32,000 volumes, over 80 current journals, and various other media, supports the research and instructional needs of the School of Architecture. There are three main components to the Architecture Library—the primary Architecture Library located in Bond Hall, the Jim R. Ryan Rare Book Room located in the main Architecture Library, and the Rome Architecture Reference Library located in the School of Architecture’s Rome Studies Center. In addition there are several special collections including the Furniture Collection, the Essential Texts for Students of Classical Architecture and Traditional Building, and the historic lantern slide collection available on Flickr.

West Lake Hall, which opened in the fall of 2012, is located on the Western edge of campus and holds the School's wood shop. Classes for the Furniture Design and Architecture and the Building Arts Concentrations are held there. The building contains a second shop and studio area for the Industrial Design section of the Department of Art, Art History, & Design at the University of Notre Dame.

The freshman studio was located close by in Brownson Hall but was relocated to Bond Hall in the fall of 2012.

The School also maintains a campus in Rome, Italy, in the Centro Storico. Purchased in 1986 and located on Via Monterone, the building houses the Rome Studies Program, and consists of parts of two Roman palazzi. Facilities include studio space for approximately 50-55 students, offices for faculty and staff, an auditorium/meeting room, a small library, a computer cluster, and a student kitchen and dining area. Students live nearby in a hotel just off of Campo de' Fiori. The year-long Rome program was founded in 1969 by the late Frank Montana and is now a requirement for all third-year architecture students.