Kiran Elfenbein

As students walk through campus in the first few weeks of the fall semester, they will notice the previously closed-off area between Adams Hall and Kanbar Hall is now open. Sills Hall is back after more than a year of construction, with quite a few changes.

The renovated building is now host to a brand new elevator, recessed patio, nine classrooms, tall south-facing windows, open study spaces and new furniture and technology, as well as 22 office spaces for faculty in the Russian, German, Romance Languages and Literatures and Classics departments.

Outside of the building itself, the surrounding landscape has new trees, a new lawn and other foliage, as well as additional stone bench seating around the building.

The road to a renovated Sills Hall began with a design process which lasted from January 2022 to April 2023, which led to the start of construction nine months later in January 2024. The renovation of the building itself was largely completed last May and the exterior landscape in July. This is the first major renovation of Sills to occur since its original construction in 1950.

Capital Projects Manager Sharon Ames shared the core objectives of the renovation.

“The main goals were … a general refresh of the building, but more in alignment with the sizes of classrooms and faculty office space,” Ames said.

Accessibility and daylight were also two priorities in the refresh of the building, as seen with the inclusion of the new elevator and larger windows. Ames also shared how the energy efficiency improvements of the building tie in with Bowdoin’s Sustainable Bowdoin 2042 plan.

“[We] also really wanted the opportunity to bring more flex space for students…, as well as the improvements for energy efficiency and the building systems,” Ames said.

While many changes were made to revamp Sills, there was still a concerted effort to maintain and respect older elements of the building. Stairs that still met safety standards were largely left untouched, and beyond new windows and trim, the exterior of the building was made to look very similar to its pre-construction state.

“We tried to be very respectful of Sills, and there are elements that we retained in the building,” Ames said.

Associate Professor of German Jill Smith, who briefly had to relocate during the construction period, expressed appreciation for the retention of certain parts of the building since moving back into the space.

“I think that the architectural team and the planning committee showed that they’ve learned a lot from the previous new buildings that have been done…. I actually really love how they preserved, for instance, some of the wood from the Peucinian Room, and tried to match the original tile as well as they could,” Smith said. “So just to reenvision something that already exists is really hard, but it works…. It’s the most beautiful new old building that I’ve seen.”

Kenneth Dixon ’27, a classics major, was initially skeptical of how the renovation would turn out but was pleasantly surprised by the final product.

“I was expecting [Sills] to be like another Mills, where it was … all white, but I like how they did the wood trim and [added] some red coloring. ​​So I really like it. Especially as a classics major, I feel like it’s a good place where I can study and hang out,” Dixon said.

The increased study spaces available to students were also an important highlight of the new space for Smith, as well as the new faculty offices, which are no longer situated in the basement of the building and have larger windows with access to direct sunlight.

“It’s really nice to come back, but [to] be out of the basement. We’re all above ground, and … just have much more light…. There were really very few spaces for students to sit outside of classrooms, and now there is, and that’s really lovely,” Smith said. “That’s the biggest, most welcome change.”