The Phoenix takes flight
The Phoenix, once a neglected outbuilding on the Mount Holyoke College campus, has been transformed into an environmentally conscious studio space thanks to a team of faculty and student research assistants.
Once a neglected outbuilding at the edge of Mount Holyoke College’s campus, the Phoenix has been reborn, reimagined and revitalized through an ambitious restoration project that honors the past while forging a sustainable path forward.
Originally home to the nation’s first all-women fire brigade, the Phoenix was also home to South Hadley’s first fire department. Now, thanks to a team of faculty, student research assistants and a collaboration with C + H Architects and Teagno Construction, the building has been transformed into an environmentally conscious and creative studio space.
The effort has not only restored a physical structure but has also been a source of real-world experience for students.
“[This project] really represents community to me,” said Lauren Madsen ’25, an architectural studies major and environmental studies minor from New York. “It was really nice to think more deeply about developing a carbon consciousness and understanding the weight that building materials can carry.”
Sustainability was a cornerstone of the restoration. Students calculated the embodied carbon impacts of different building materials and used innovative tools, such as the BEAM carbon calculator, to translate abstract data into meaningful, accessible visuals.
“We got to really see the impact of different material and assembly choices and how that impacted both the aesthetics and the embodied carbon of the project,” said Mitsuki Ito ’26, a student with a double major in architectural studies and computer science from Seattle.
A unique feature of the site is the native landscape garden design by Lauren Madsen ’25 and Audrey Brecher ’26 that surrounds the building. “We wanted to make a native garden,” Madsen said. “So no grasses at all and just really having [it] be a rewilded landscape. We did a community event last week, and we all planted together. So the entire landscape was actually created by students, facilities and professors.”
Five College Associate Professor of Sustainable Architecture Naomi Darling, who will now use the space as her design studio, discussed the value of the restoration being a holistic experience for the students. “For me, it was important that the students who worked on the project through the design process in 2023–[20]24 would still be on campus during the construction phase so they could see the whole process through,” she said. “For this reason, I chose juniors and one sophomore to work with me during the design phase. I really wanted these students to have the opportunity to see the project through, because for me, seeing a project come together is really satisfying. I hope that it was equally satisfying for my students.”
Darling is also pleased that the restoration is elevating the history of the building and the nation’s first fully female fire brigade.
“I just think it’s so cool that we have that history here at Mount Holyoke of having the nation’s first all-women’s fire brigade,” she said. “Mount Holyoke is a trailblazer in women’s education. I think part of that is knowing that women can do everything. We can be chemists and scientists, but we can also be firefighters and architects. And so I think for me, having that be the history of this building just makes it that much more meaningful, because we’re trailblazers.”
