With a mission to provide educational opportunities to the diverse community it serves, Housatonic Community College (HCC), occupies the site of a former shopping mall in downtown Bridgeport, CT, and provides academic access to recent immigrants, first generation college bound students and students continuing or returning to the higher ed arena. A significant addition to its aging main building, Lafayette Hall, provided the ability to address critical program needs, and greatly enhance the college’s “front door” to the city.
The project radically changes the college’s relationship to the street and its place in Bridgeport’s urban fabric. The Lafayette Hall expansion reaches out to prospective students, the overall academic community and the City at large. And true to HCC’s mission, everyone is invited in. A Welcome Center for new and prospective students and student enrollment services offices are located along a light-filled public concourse or “Main Street” off a new entrance lobby. The addition also serves as the access point to the College’s renowned public art museum and provides a backdrop for showcasing gems from its collection. Upper floors of the addition contain studio and digital art instructional spaces and general-purpose classrooms.
A new landscaped courtyard creates an intimate campus outdoor social space and student lounges throughout the addition encourage community interaction and collaboration. Wrapped with a transparent glazed skin that reaches out to the city, the building invites the public to look in and encourages occupants to look back out. The Lafayette Hall addition has been certified LEED Silver.
Material Used :
1. Armstrong - Acoustical Ceilings
2. Hunter Douglas - Linear Metal Ceilings
3. Mosa - Bathroom Floor and Tile
4. Key Resin Company - Terrazzo Flooring
5. Steelcase - Furniture – Offices and Classrooms
6. Shaw Contract - Carpet
7. EFCO - Interior Curtain Wall/Storefront
8. Sherwin Williams - Interior and Exterior Paint
9. Taktl - GFRC Wall Panels
10. Alucobond - Metal Panels
11. Watsontown - Brick
12. Ligman - Light Poles and Bollards
13. Precision Architectural Lighting - Lights in canopy
