This 36,000 sq. ft.,$29,000,000 wingwas required to overcome an essential disequilibrium; the need to establish a prominent, new center for the school that is located on the margin of a much larger building. The task was made more difficult by the fact that the new building was required to stretch past the adjacent art school wing while connecting the existing building to the street.
The idea is to introduce an autonomous form that is distorted by the idiosyncratic site. The building creates multiple sequences and promenades. The hexagonal commons is ramped in order to transition from the low ceilinged spaces of the existing building to the higher floors of the new. The diagonal axis defined by the high and low points of the ramps is contested by an axis delineated by a spiral-like staircase that appears to tie the ramps into a knot.
Material Used :
1. Cladding: Ironspot brick, gray/purple semigloss in running bond/soldier coursing pattern
2. Curtain Wall: Wausau Window and Wall Systems
3. Glazing: Guardian Glass, SuperSky
4. Metal panels: Centria
5.Raised flooring: Haworth
6. Lighting: Lithonia Lighting, Focal Point, Lumen Werx
7. Acoustical ceiling: Armstrong Ceiling Solutions
8. Roofing: Firestone
9. Furniture: Knoll, Herman Miller
