The RW Kern Center is designed to embody Hampshire College’s mission of fostering positive change in the world—and to meet the Living Building Challenge. This new ‘gateway’ building creates an opportunity for a powerful transformation of Hampshire’s 1960's vehicle-dominated, Brutalist campus core into a pedestrian friendly naturalistic landscape. The Kern Center will “operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature's architecture”, and contribute to Hampshire Community values of active inquiry, creativity, social justice, entrepreneurship, and the sustainable future.