Grace Auditorium, the brick-clad, slate-roofed facility, is the first stop for visitors arriving at the laboratory. Guests can take shelter from the elements under the generously sized front entrance portico supported by its substantial pillars.

Visible from Route 25A are the striking and deep dormer windows that flood the lobby with light. There are two skylights on the shallow-hipped roof and light wells along the perimeter of the building.

Grace Auditorium's rich trim colors, copper piping dentils, and dormer windows are suggestive of both the informal wooden schoolhouse-type buildings and the more formal architecture sprinkled throughout the campus.