Boston Architectural College (BAC)

Housing a unique institution founded in 1867, BAC is staffed by professional architects, largely volunteers, and open to working students on a part-time basis. The design, the result of a competition, is composed of a concrete frame, which forms a lively exterior and provides logical evidence of divisions in the building's functions—library, meeting rooms, studios, and classrooms. The glass-enclosed exhibition space and lobby at ground level achieve street and public contact. In contrast to the building's contemporary language, Richard Haas's trompe l'oeil mural on the western wall represents a section of a Beaux-Arts domed building, a style then being studied and later revived as a prelude to postmodernism.