Yale Daily News Graphics

New Haven, CT

This project included a comprehensive renovation of the Britton Hadden Memorial Building, home of the Yale Daily News. Our design embraces and celebrates the unique character and history of the building and the News organization. Throughout the process we searched for design opportunities that were subtle and allowed visitors and staff to experience special moments in discreet or underutilized parts of the building.

The design includes a series of graphic installations that serve as a primary focus for the design. In the Newsroom, we composed the paper’s collection of alumni photos using a cable rail hanging system, leaving room at the end of the wall for future classes. The wall resonates as one of the special moments unique to the building and serves as a wonderful texture and an historical record of previous members of the News.

Construction of an adjacent building caused the original leaded glass windows to be obstructed by concrete block. We transformed these openings into back-lit vitrines made from resin panels with graphic collages of earlier issues of the News. The vitrines add a dynamic design element to the primary circulation space of the building and recall some of the rich history of the News.

At the underside of the first floor stairs, we collaborated with our client to find an appropriate quote from the first edition of the paper in 1878: “The innovation which we begin by this morning’s issue is justified by the dullness of the times, and the demand for news among us.”

A privacy panel was added to the reception desk, visible from the main entry of the building. Oversized vinyl numbers ‘1878’, the year the Yale Daily News was founded are composed on the panel face, creating a distinctive character that also serves as an effective way finding device for visitors to the News.

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