Building/Ground: Covered Courtyards

These are projects that covered existing open courtyards with skylights:

Source: portocalsnow.com

Tosteson Medical Education Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 1987 designed by Ellenzwig

A three-story sky-lit atrium serves as a gathering place for informal interaction between students and faculty and the "heart" of the building; the Harvard medical societies are located at the perimeter of the atrium.

The Tosteson Medical Education Center was the first teaching addition to Harvard Medical School since 1906. The building's exterior extends and complements the original neoclassical marble buildings of the Medical School quadrangle.  -- architect's web site

Source: wn.com

Grand Louvre — Phase II, Pairs, France, 1989 designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

Phase II required the creation of new space within an historic shell. Work included the cleaning and restoration of façades and exterior sculpture, conversion of three interior courtyards (previously staff parking lots) into skylit sculpture courts, and demolition of 12 acres of dingy government offices compressed into 6+ floors.  -- architect's web site

Source: kpf.com

World Bank Headquarters, Washington, D.C., USA, 1997 designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates

Measuring 150 feet wide by 150 feet high (46 meters) and bathed in natural light, the courtyard represents the bank as a community, connecting and integrating the separate buildings and their diverse functions within one institution. -- architect's web site

Source: Te-Ming Chang

The Great Court, British Museum, London, UK, 2000 designed by Foster + Partners

The courtyard at the heart of the British Museum is the largest enclosed public space in Europe. Its glazed canopy is a fusion of state-of-the-art engineering and economy of form. A new kind of public space – a cultural plaza - the Great Court resonates beyond the confines of the Museum to provide a new civic amenity for London.  -- architect's web site

New museums: The good, the bad, and the horribly misguided 

There’s something deeply weird about that space, bathed in a surreal glow that makes everything and everyone beneath the diamond-latticed canopy seem fake. Yes, London was the site of the seminal Crystal Palace, wellspring of high-tech design and granddaddy of all shopping malls. But the growing compulsion to glaze over museum courtyards everywhere smacks of suburban commercialization.  -- Martin Filler, Architectural Record, June 2008

Source: © Peter Vanderwarker Payette

PDSI (Physics, DMSE, Spectroscopy, and Infrastructure) Project, Mass. Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA designed by Payette

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Physics, PDSI (Physics, DMSE, Spectroscopy, and Infrastructure) Project was initially conceived as a traditional renovation within the university’s central structure, the historic Main Group. As proposed in Payette’s Main Group Master Plan Study in 2003, future work within the Main Group would preserve its historic fabric while supporting flexibility of use and upgrades to essential building systems. The project was transformed into a strategic development that will provide new and renovated program areas while also providing core infrastructure to nearly one quarter of the Main Group’s 1,000,000 square feet. -- architect's web site

The public art on the floor is Bars of Color within Squares by Sol LeWitt, 2007 

a vibrantly colored floor for the U-shaped atrium of the building. The work covers the entire floor, some 5,500 square feet, and consists of 15 18-foot squares of brightly colored geometric patterns, which shift ambiguously between flatness and the illusion of depth, set off by bands of white and gray.  -- MIT List Visual Arts Center

Source: Foster + Partners

Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA, 2007 designed by Foster + Partners

The enclosure of the building’s grand central courtyard was prompted by a desire to transform the public’s experience of the Smithsonian’s galleries and provide the Institution with one of the largest event spaces in Washington.  -- architect's web site

Source: Make Architects archdaily.com

55 Baker Street, London,UK, 2008 designed by Make Architects

Three glass infills or ‘masks’ span the voids between existing blocks to create a new facade for the building, with the central glazed section enclosing a seven-storey atrium which is open to the public. The ground floor of the building has been entirely re-clad and devoted to retail units, cafes and restaurants. At the rear of the building, a new development of 23 houses offers affordable, key worker and private accommodation. -- ArchDaily

Source: wustl.edu

Washington University School of Law’s Anheuser-Busch Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, 2008 designed by Hartman-Cox Architects

When Washington University in St. Louis renovated the School of Law’s Anheuser-Busch Hall and enlarged the student commons, it took a bold direction to cover Crowder Courtyard in a canopy of glass and metal. Playing a significant role, Super Sky Products manufactured and installed a custom dome skylight spanning 80 by 85 feet over what previously served as outdoor space. -- ARCHITECT

 Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston © Chuck Choi

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 2010 designed by Foster + Partners

Architecturally, the project echoes themes explored in the Reichstag and the Great Court at the British Museum, combining elements of old and new and strengthening links with the community by making the building more open and accessible. At the core of the masterplan for the museum is the restoration of the logic of its Beaux-Arts plan, devised by the architect Guy Lowell.  -- architect's web site

Source: construction.com

Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 2010 designed by Kliment Halsband Architects

The renovation's boldest move was demolition of the courtyard passageway. Its removal allowed the transformation of the previously unusable core into a lively atrium, where students can chat or study. This new gathering space has a precisely engineered tension-grid skylight overhead, white marble salvaged from the old library stacks underfoot, and walls clad in buff terra-cotta panels. These conceal sound-absorptive material, softening what would have been an acoustically harsh environment. -- Architectural Record

Source: Dok Architekten archdaily.com

National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2011 designed by Dok Architecten

The 17th century-built Maritime Warehouse in Amsterdam, originally designed by Daniel Stalpaert in 1656, underwent a retrofit to make its interior courtyard a suitable space for cultural activities throughout the year. The new glass roofing that will cover the courtyard, designed by Laurent Ney, and the general renovations to the interior were designed by Dok Architecten, was completed in 2011.

.... the newly roofed over courtyard becomes a central interior space where visitors can orient themselves and find various routes the lead through the museum. -- ArchDaily

Source: hartmancox.com

University of Michigan Law School Robert B. Aikens Commons Addition, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, 2011 designed by Hartman-Cox Architects

The Commons is a new two story, 25,000 square foot infill addition and gathering place. The original courtyard has become the new heart of the Law School. A place that naturally encourages social and intellectual interaction among students and faculty, the Commons provides accessible connections between the Law School buildings that did not previously exist. -- architect's web site

Source: Andreas Braun & Rainer Gollmer archdaily.com

Station Hameln, Hameln, Germany, 2006 designed by Scheidt Kasprusch Archiekten

The original condition from 1925 was carved out where it was possible. A new implanted, central main foyer with its clear distinct architecture connects the existing construction units. The curved glass roof vaults generous floor openings and creates a bright and amiable atmosphere in all access levels. Travel centre, shops, restaurants, a club as well as offices are arranged encircling the glass atrium and the historical arrival hall. -- ArchDaily