The renovation of the approximately 2,400-square-foot first-floor space of Manning Hall has been designed in harmony with the historic, Greek Revival-style 1834 building and other nearby campus buildings, and it will include accessibility upgrades and other modernizations, according to University Architect Craig Barton.

“The interior architectural elements will support content and storytelling about the University, through digital tools, still images and more,” Barton said. “The welcome center will provide a point of contact to the heart of the University campus where visitors can access information and gain an idea of what life here is like.”

The project will include upgrades to and a widening of the pathway between Manning Hall and University Hall to improve accessibility, which will be complemented by wayfinding signage to the Quiet Green, according to Barton. The primary entrance to the admission welcome center will be located on the Quiet Green — home to Brown’s iconic Van Wickle Gates, historic Carrie Tower and Martin Puryear’s “Slavery Memorial.” Visitors will enter through Manning Hall’s four distinctive fluted columns, and new glass doors will enable visitors to see into the welcome center as they approach the building.

“Manning Hall is one of Brown’s iconic buildings,” Powell said. “To be able to welcome people through its pillars is an incredible visual statement about Providence’s history and beauty during what will be many people’s first experience on campus.”

Utile Architecture and Planning and Stimson Landscape Architects are leading the project design team, and Shawmut Design and Construction will manage the renovation. Roll Barresi and Associates developed a suite of graphic design displays that will be showcased throughout the new space.

A transformative moment

With the admission welcome center located on the first floor of Manning Hall, the second floor will continue to house Brown’s Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life as well as Manning Chapel, a worship space. The renovation project will include the installation of an acoustic layer between the first and second floors to ensure that activity in the chapel and the visitor center can take place concurrently, according to Barton.

In Manning Hall, the center will be managed by student ambassadors in addition to admission staff, with an admission officer available during business hours, Powell said. In a concurrent move, the Office of College Admission will relocate its full team from its current offices in the Jewelry District to a renovated office space in Brown’s Sciences Library.

“It’s not just the welcome center team, but all of the admission staff members moving to College Hill, so we’ll have more people in the heart of campus to amplify those really important interactions with prospective students and visitors,” Powell said.

The welcome center will also free up valuable space in the bustling Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, where visitors currently congregate before campus tours. But the campus center will remain a major feature during the visitor experience, Powell said.

“We’ll have a dedicated touchdown space to welcome visitors to Brown, but we’re not changing what we showcase on campus,” Powell said. “The campus center is still a main attraction of any campus visit, and we’ll continue to encourage families to visit the Blue Room and the Underground and see students engaging in the full range of activities that define campus life .”

Powell said that by providing a space that supports a robust visitor experience, the creation of the admission welcome center marks a transformative moment for the University. 

“The most valuable part of the Brown experience is our people, and this space will give visitors a window into the human interaction that makes Brown so special,” Powell said. “Manning Hall will be a starting point to highlight many of the other beautiful and compelling parts of Brown’s campus, and families will be able to see the campus community from the very moment they start the visit process at Brown.”

Until last month, the first floor of Manning Hall was home to gallery space for Brown’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, whose collections and staff have for decades been split between Manning Hall and a larger collections research center located in Bristol, Rhode Island, where most of the museum’s collections and staff have been housed.

Since 2023, a major effort to relocate the Haffenreffer Museum has been underway. That project will centralize the entire collection and all staff to a newly renovated space at 1 Davol Square in Providence’s Jewelry District, expected to open in Fall 2027. The expanded home will offer a host of new possibilities for scholarship, community outreach and partnerships, according to Robert Preucel, director of the Haffenreffer Museum and a professor of anthropology at Brown.

“Not only are we rehousing our collections in a state-of-the-art space, but we’ll have two gallery spaces and a distinct culture lab space, allowing us to break up the activities that were in Manning Hall,” Preucel said. “This will allow the public and our students and scholars to engage with and participate in different elements of the Haffenreffer Museum experience. We’re very excited about the move and the opportunity to finally have our collections and activities all together under one roof.”