At Stokes Hall, the building program informs the design of the project but doesn’t drive it. The building is intended to last for a very long time and is expected to see some of its uses change within its lifetime. Therefore, its vertical and horizontal organization, the width of its floor plate, its floor-to-floor heights, and mechanical room spaces are generous, designed to accommodate changes in use over the long haul. The term we used to explain our intent was “the empty vessel.” But as we went through the design process, we discovered that such an approach also changed the weight we placed on the different design drivers. That is, our design priorities widened to included more than just program and, in deed, gave greater weight to other issues that, we felt, would created the spirit of community that we were after. Relationships between interior and exterior rooms, campus access points and axis, quality of light and materials, to name a few, were of equal or greater importance than the specific program requirements.