NEW YORK | The New School | 16 stories

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

The New School approves brass-colored tower for Fifth Avenue and 14th Street
May 06, 2010 By Carter B. Horsley


The board of trustees of the New School approved plans yesterday for a 16-story, mixed-use building to replace its existing low-rise building on Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets that used to be a Lerner's store.

The new building will have a 7-story base that will house some retail and a University Center and a 9-story setback tower that will have a 600-unit dormitory for its students.

The $353 million project requires no public approvals.

The planned building has been designed by Roger Duffy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill who designed the Toren residential condominium tower in downtown Brooklyn that is nearing completion and it resembles that building a bit in its unusual and asymmetric fenestration.

The school building will be clad in bands of brass with "blisters" of white windows that highlight some of the building's staircases.

An earlier design for the project indicated a white, red and blue facade.

In an article in today's edition of The New York Times by Charles V. Bagli, Bob Kerry, the school's president said "It's going to be the center of the university, a favorite gathering place for students and faculty," adding that "This institution is in the midst of a transformation, amplifying its urban campus to serve degree-seeking students who now make up the majority of our enrollment."

Construction is expected to begin in August and be completed in 2013.

The original proposal was larger, taller and "a little too office-buildingish for the neighborhood," Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, told The Times, adding that "This plan has come a long way since the original 350-foot-tall design with an all-glass exterior and projecting multicolored lights."

Mr. Berman's organization has had long disputes with another Greenwich Village educational institution, New York University, over its large expansion plans.

Academic architecture in New York City has not been distinguished in recent decades except for the recently completed academic center designed by Morphosis for Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art across the street from McSorley's, the famous pub.

In his accompanying review, Nicolai Ouroussoff, the architectural critic of The New York Times, noted that the planned building "is not shy," adding that the "thick glass band, tracing an elaborate double-decker internal staircase, carve diagonally across its facade like a chunky costume-jewelry necklace."

"What enlivens the design, however, is not its bling," the review continued, "but its emphasis on the spectacle of social interaction. The interior, it turns out, is packed with communal spaces meant to encourage casual interactions. The exposed staircases are intended to put the flow of movement through the building on display to the world. They embody the idea - a popular one in architecture today - that getting an education should not be about barricading yourself inside a monastery but participating fully in public life."

"The building's brass skin will be made of thin horizontal bands - essentially a blown-up version of conventional clapboard siding - giving it a taut and somewhat aloof appearance....The glass-walled staircases, which look as if they have been gouged into the facade with a gigantic router, are an assertive counterpoint to the standoffishness, an effort to create a strong visual bond with the neighborhood - the illusion that the flow of bodies along the street is being sucked right up through the building," the article continued.

The building is across East 13th Street from a former Schrafft's building that for many years had a wonderful, giant sculpture of an iguana on its roof that enlivened the very elegant precincts of Lower Fifth Avenue.

http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/u...school5610.jpg

http://www.cityrealty.com/new-york-c...h-street/31642

[RobertWalpole]

I like it. Also the building that was there really sucked.

[Alliance]

I like the design of the base, but the top seems a bit off to me. Brass cladding sounds interesting though.

Also, has this actually started construction? I dont think it had yet.

[yankeesfan1000]

Thank you for posting this. I've been wondering for months what's they're building there.

And yea this is u/c, also not a bad looking building at all.

[pico44]

Originally Posted by RobertWalpole

I like it. Also the building that was there really sucked.

Yes it did. And this is surely better, and at the very least; much more interesting. I Love the cutouts but am put off by the--otherwise--dearth of windows. As always, materials are key.

[taylz468]

I find this to be a really unusual project, especially since it was SOM that designed this (!?).

From The New School's community open house presentation.

http://www.newschool.edu/universityc...tion4.aspx?s=3

[401PAS]

Originally Posted by pico44

Yes it did. And this is surely better, and at the very least; much more interesting. I Love the cutouts but am put off by the--otherwise--dearth of windows. As always, materials are key.

I agree that it is a vast improvement to what was there originally, however, I think that the those windowed staircases make it look like a giant hamster cage. Not a big fan based on this rendering. But let's see how it turns out.

[jackie60]

Passed by yesterday and the first floor is well underway.

[babybackribs2314]

Photo from the 2nd. More on my blog.

http://newyorkyimby.blogspot.com/201...th-avenue.html

[jackie60]

I passed by last night and they are moving on rather quickly. I'm on the design side of this business so please if I don't explain this properly be kind.
The columns on the second floor are not completely vertical, they lean to the north. What I didn't notice from the render is that the windowed staircases are three dimensional on the facade of the building.
Also as you pass under the sidewalk shed there is an opening with chain link fence so you can see into the whole construction site. It's going to have a very unusual interior space. There are huge cut outs in the concrete floor where the staircase turns from going east to going west. You can see it on the(east corner) of the 14th street elevation of the render.

[tdawg]

this is my school—i'm getting an MA in Media Studies @ TNS. Sadly this building will open soon after I graduate.

[jackie60]

MANHATTAN — Massive steel trusses that will become the base of the auditorium at the New School's new Fifth Avenue building are being put in place Saturday, builders said.

Transport of three 74-ton, 12-foot-high supports for the University Center's 800-seat auditorium will close East 13th Street, between Fifth Avenue and University Place, to traffic from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Tishman Construction Corporation senior vice president Thomas Hoban said.

Neighbor Susan Kramer, who lives on 14th Street just north of the construction site, said she appreciated the New School's efforts to inform the community about work at 65 Fifth Ave. but that banging sounds awaken her on weekends.

"We were initially told there would be no weekend work, but now they work every Saturday, starting at 7 a.m.," she said.
The New School's University Center will include an auditorium for which structures will be put up Sat., Jan. 21, 2012. (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill)

The 16-story, brass and glass building is on track to be ready for occupancy in fall 2013, New School spokeswoman Jane Crotty said.

The University Center will house the auditorium, classrooms, student lounges, street-level retail spaces and six stories of dorms with a total of 600 beds, according to architect Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's website.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20120120/gree...#ixzz1k7RJReyd

[Duck From NY]

The glass doesn't jive well with the color of the building, but I'll take it!

[DesignerVoodoo]

From this afternoon.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[plinko]

What in the world is going on with that corner?

[BStyles]

Is it just me, or are schools slowly getting taller and taller?

[Arawooho]

Originally Posted by BStyles

Is it just me, or are schools slowly getting taller and taller?

It could just be

[pico44]

Originally Posted by plinko

What in the world is going on with that corner?

As a non-particpant I can't say with 100% certainty, but it looks as if they are constructing some type of "building". Perhaps it has something to do with the renders above?????

[DesignerVoodoo]

I got some better shots today.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[yankeesfan1000]

Awesome shots. This is really coming together.