The central aim of the project for a new geophysics lab building at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is to develop an alternative to the double loaded corridor, an armature that reaps the organizational and social benefits of corridors—namely their ability to generate spontaneous, unplanned interactions—that simultaneously improves environmental performance. Within such an armature, social, energetic, and informational vectors gather and are channeled through the building, enhancing its functioning as the container of a lively community of knowledge. The creation of such a spine that can incorporate social and work space within it, rather than off of if, is contingent on the ability to light and ventilate these spaces passively. Skylights provide daylighting as well as natural ventilation. On the edges of the spine, rammed earth walls support clt beams that span the wide central spine and provide thermal mass to help regulate temperatures.The spaces embedded within the spine range in size and function: from informal conference rooms, to small break out rooms for small groups or for intensive, individual work, and lounges.