The transformation of the aging Corgan Library into a welcoming, 9,000-square-foot Student Success Center sparked a cultural shift on campus. 

The original building was a stark brutalist structure with little connection to the surrounding area. This project beautifully centralized its scattered student services to create a single destination where students can get the support they need.

King’s College partnered with Kimmel Bogrette Architecture + Site, a leading architecture firm in Pennsylvania with the mission of delivering “Extraordinary Solutions for Ordinary Budgets.” The Kimmel team — led by Martin Kimmel and Joseph Montante — committed to purposeful design decisions inspired by the college’s devotion to student success.
 
All interior elements were carefully selected by Kimmel Bogrette’s interior design team, incorporating a thoughtful mix of King College’s signature red along with complementary yellow accents and patterns. “The outcome creates a vibrant balance that is further enhanced by the warmth of the Wilsonart Woodgrains,” says interior designer Shannon Pringle.

With a limited budget and high expectations, every design move had to be thoughtful. The team selected materials that offered both performance and polish. Fawn Cypress from Wilsonart Woodgrains delivered exactly that, outperforming traditional wood veneer in the process.

“We wanted a woodgrain that felt clean, modern, and not too traditional,” says Joseph Montante. “Fawn Cypress has a straighter grain and lighter tone that fit perfectly with our mid-range color palette.”

The contemporary woodgrain unifies various zones in the space with precise grain-matching to create a continuous, natural surface. This attention to detail, which is hard to achieve with traditional wood veneer, elevates the entire space with cohesive style.

Martin adds, “In the old days, laminate was more difficult to use. Today, it looks nice — it feels premium and complete. The finished HPL with best-matched edgebanding looks like real wood panels. It can be done with Wilsonart Woodgrains!”

Beyond aesthetics, Wilsonart Woodgrains is cost-effective and offers clear performance advantages over wood veneer, which is especially important for a high-traffic area used daily by hundreds of students.

Joseph says, “Smaller colleges have limited resources for maintenance, so we had to consider what will be easy to clean. Wilsonart Woodgrains offers the look of veneer without the dents, scratches, or chipped outside corners. It’s the best of both worlds.”

The newly renovated 9,000-square-foot center does more than consolidate student services at King’s College — it invites everyone to stay, collaborate, and thrive. Spaces were designed to encourage conversation with varied seating options, open sightlines, and informal nooks. The architecture uses geometry and angles to create visual interest from every vantage point.