One of a pair of Neoclassical pavilions housing the undergraduate debating societies, the building was designed by A. Page Brown in 1893 and significantly transformed after a fire in 1969. The firm of Gwathmey Siegel was retained by the University to redesign the interior in 1972. Charles Gwathmey seized on the opportunity to pay homage to the 1920s avant-garde within the classical cube of the original structure. The result was a densely planned, layered composition that accommodated a program of meeting spaces, offices, lounge, and support spaces. Gwathmey syncopated interlocking volumes and structure in a nine-square scheme that simultaneously alluded to the rigors of the Palladian tradition while confronting it with modernist imagery.