The new complex, covering more than 13,000 m2, provides Princeton's “creative” departments with the spaces they need for optimal performance and innovative projects. First of all, it is intended for students in the fields of dance, music, musical theater, and it also houses the premises of the "studio" - an interdisciplinary art project that unites students with professional artists and specialists in other fields, for example, with a composer and painter or set designer and ecologist.
The three buildings are united by a "forum" arranged under the courtyard. Most of the courtyard is occupied by a reservoir, in the bottom of which - the ceiling of the "forum" - window openings, providing the underground room with sunlight. However, due to the difference in heights, the "forum" also has a ground glazed facade. Since the courtyard - Art Plaza - is also landscaped, it plays the role of a green roof; green roofs are also on the ground buildings.
The unity of the Lewis complex is given by the cladding of all its parts with golden limestone from Lecce. The Wallace building houses two theater halls and two ballet studios, each of which has been clad in one or another material - perforated black steel, light wood, foam aluminum or concrete with a "plank" texture. They are connected by a white "dancing" staircase. The musical building is filled with wooden studio volumes suspended above the rehearsal hall for the orchestra: its structure is clearly visible through the glass façade. "Tower of Arts" repeats proportions
the neo-Tudorian Blair Arch, one of the campus symbols; the tower houses various studios, the Hurley exhibition gallery, administrative offices, and teachers' offices. The complex also has workshops for the production of scenery, props, costumes, etc.
Among the environmental components of the project, in addition to green roofs, there is a geothermal heating and cooling system, highly efficient insulation of facades, the use of natural lighting and ventilation (for example, windows can be opened in buildings), interior shading, energy consumption sensors, motion, light, etc., economical faucets, LED general and theater lighting systems.
