Archival material, Center for American Studies (Institute of European and American Studies) (1969–1972), Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 台灣台北市美國研究中心（中央研究院歐美研究所）（1969至1972年）檔案資料

The Taiwanese architect Wang Chiu-Hwa designed the Center for American Studies (now the Institute of European and American Studies) at the Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s national academy, in the early 1970s. Wang led the project for New York–based firm Percival Goodman, where she spent her career from 1950 until her return to Taiwan in 1979.

The three-storey building is located near the western limit of the campus, along a curving road. Its entryway, set off by a concrete beam, is nestled under a cantilevered upper level marked by a span of horizontal windows, itself shaded by the overhang of a pitched roof. The entire structure is raised on concrete pillars, allowing the below-grade lower level to function as a car park. The grey tiles of the roof and the red brick infill in the building’s concrete frame were meant to harmonise with the neighbouring traditional buildings, albeit using the modernist language of brutalism. A lecture hall occupies the building’s core; four rectangular forms around it accommodate study rooms. The building’s western edge takes on a zigzag pattern, providing spatial variation and natural light.

As Percival Goodman’s first project in Asia, the Center for American Studies is an example of the international flows of modernist architects from and to the continent in the mid-twentieth century. Specifically, it demonstrates the close relationship between the United States and Taiwan at the time. It is Wang’s earliest project for a campus, a type for which she is especially well known.

The series consists of a project file that contains site plans, floor plans, and sections, and substantial photographic documentation of the building, including of the interior of the library, the auditorium, and other spaces. There is also a file of four slides showing exterior views of the building.