Columbia University Northwest Corner Building
25/07/2011.
by Rafael Moneo, Davis Brody Bond Aedas, and Moneo Brock Studio. [NYC] USA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
© Michael Moran Studio
Architects.- Rafael Moneo, Davis Brody Bond Aedas and Moneo Brock Studio
Location.- New York City, New York, USA
Lead Designer.- José Rafael Moneo
Design Project Architect.- Moneo Brock Studio
Lead Designers.- Belen Moneo and Jeff Brock
Associate Architect.- Davis Brody Bond Aedas
Partner-in-Charge.- William Paxson
Contractor.- Turner Construction Company
Structural/Mechanical Engineer.- Ove Arup & Partners Consulting Engineers
Facade Consultant.- R.A. Heintges & Associates
Geotechnical Engineer.- Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers
Environmental Engineer.- Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin
Landscape Consultant.- Langan Engineering & Environmental Services
Lighting.- Fisher Marantz Stone
Cost Estimating: Wolf and Company
Project Management.- Columbia University Facilities – Capital Project Management
Client.- Columbia University
Project Area.- 188,000 sqf
Project Year.- 2010
Second floor plan
Once the urban and campus-scale approach had been defined, the principle design challenge was to develop fluid connections between street traffic and the campus some 30 feet higher on a building site severely compromised by the presence of an existing structure, the Francis S. Levien Gymnasium, which occupies the majority of the ground plane. The vast majority of the new building had to be built over the existing gymnasium, while the site’s remaining free area, a mere 65-foot square area at the corner of 120th and Broadway, had to fit elevators, mechanical systems, complex structure and program. The escalators, stairs and café are organized so that the open space of the campus level plaza is visible from all key points along the path from the building’s street entry to the café and on up to the campus level lobby and library. The view of the open space of the campus above is meant to draw the building’s users through the entry and to welcome them to the University.
West Elevation. Broadway.
The structural feat of spanning 125 feet over the existing gym is the defining gesture of the project. The seven double-height floors of open laboratory space suspended above the library and gym below, with the commensurate structural requirements of forty-foot clear spans and a very stiff floor construction, required a sophisticated structural design. A concept of bracing the façade plane in its entirety was developed with ARUP engineers. The boldest expression of this gesture is given to the library, made completely free of columns and occupying the interstitial space between the roof of the gym below and the great mass of the new building overhead. The ellipses or gaps in the McKim Meade and White description of the campus perimeter are here given a twist, with a horizontally disposed interstice suggesting a communication between the campus interior and the street below.
First floor plan.
The irregularity of the pattern of diagonals in the façade is a direct response to the distortion of the otherwise symmetrical loading patterns extent in the simple, prismatic form of the basic structure, distortions exerted by anomalies in the building’s exterior form and interior disposition of structural reinforcements. The cantilevered “bridges” connecting the Science building to its neighbors, the trusses for lateral bracing embedded in the plan, the suspension of the classroom and café spaces (which were also required to be column free), and the eccentricity of the central longitudinal column line, all exert their influence upon the perimeter frame. The building’s own architecture, the specific architectural responses made to accommodate the varied programmatic requirements, constitutes the lion’s share of the input that gave the frame its final composition. The powerful and conspicuous structure becomes the virtual substance of its architecture.
Est (Campus) Elevation.
In the building’s façades the structural frame is represented by a pattern of aluminum fins, creating a patchwork of light and shadow, and the building’s mass appears a shimmering prismatic structure sitting atop a carved stone pedestal. The campus-side façade is almost entirely glass, revealing the interior workings of the building and again emphasizing openness and a connection to the campus community. The new building houses 45,000sf of laboratory space for Physics, Chemistry and Biology and supporting classrooms, offices and study spaces. Additional program includes a 13,000sf research library, a 170-seat auditorium, a public café and a new ‘game day’ entrance to the University’s Gymnasium.
North section.
José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born May 9. Tudela, Navarra,1937) is a Spanish architect. He was won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996. He studied at the ETSAM, Technical University of Madrid (UPM) from which he received his architectural degree in 1961. From 1958 to 1961 he worked with the architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza in Madrid and from 1961-62 in Hellebaeck, Denmark with Jørn Utzon. In 1963 he was awarded a fellowship at the Spanish Academy in Rome. Upon his return to Spain in 1965, he opened his office in Madrid and began teaching at the Escuela Técnica Superior of Madrid.
In 1970 he won a teaching chair in architectural theory at the Escuela Técnica Superior of Barcelona. From 1980 to 1985 he was chaired professor of composition at the Escuela Técnica Superior of Madrid. He has taught architecture at various locations around the world and from 1985 to 1990 was the chairman of Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is the first Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture. In 1991 he was named Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he continues to lecture as Professor Emeritus. He became Academic Numerary in the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid in May 1997.
Spanish constructions of his design include the renovation of the Villahermosa Palace (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum) in Madrid, the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, an expansion of the Madrid Atocha railway station, the Diestre Factory in Zaragoza, Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Majorca the headquarters of the Bankinter (again, in Madrid), Town Hall in Logroño. He also designed the annex to the Murcia Town Hall, which was completed in 1998. His latest works are the enlargement of the Prado Museum, the extension of the Bank of Spain, an almost totally mimetic reproduction of the existing building and the extension of the Madrid Atocha railway station 2011.
Some of Moneo's prominent works in the US include the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and the Audrey Jones Beck Building (an expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston). Moneo also designed the Chace Center, a new building for the Rhode Island School of Design. Moneo's most recent work is the Northwest Corner Building (formerly the Interdepartmental Science Building) at Columbia University in New York City, which first opened in December 2010.
Moneo is in possession of prestigious international awards including the Prize of architecture Arnold W. Brunner Memorial (1993) of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Schock Prize in Visual Arts (1993) in Stockholm, the Pritzker Prize (1996), the Antonio Feltrinelli (1998) of the National Academy of Lincei in Rome and Mies van der Rohe (2001) of Barcelona.
Biography Dates
1937 | Born in Tudela, Navarra Spain | |
1958-61 | Worked at the office of Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza | |
1961 | Obtained degree from the Escuela Técnica Superior, Madrid | |
1962 | Worked at the office of Jǿrn Utzon, Denmark | |
1963 | Spent two years at the Spanish Academy, Rome | |
1967 | Diestre Factory, Zaragoza, Spain | |
1976 | Bankinter (Bank) in Madrid | |
1981 | City Hall of Logrono, Spain | |
1985-90 | Dean at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design | |
1986 | National Museum of Roman Art, Mérida, Spain | |
1987 | L’Illa Diagonal, Barcelona, Spain, in collaboration with Manuel Solà-Morales | |
1990 | Kursaal Auditorium and Congress Center, San Sebastián, Spain | |
1991 |
Murcia City Hall Extension, Spain San Pablo Airport, Seville, Spain |
|
1992 |
Madrid Atocha railway station The Pilar and Joan Miro Foundation, Palma de Mallorca, Spain |
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1996 |
Pritzker Architecture Prize Souks, Beirut, Lebanon |
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1998 | Moderna Museet and Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, Stockholm, Sweden | |
2000 | Audrey Jones Beck Building, Houston, Texas | |
2001 | Iesu Church, San Sebastián, Spain | |
2002 | Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, California | |
2003 | RIBA Royal Gold Medal | |
2005 | Northwest Corner Building, Columbia University, New York, USA, in collaboration with Moneo-Brock Studio | |
2007 |
Museo del Prado extension, Madrid, Spain Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, Princeton University, USA |
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2009 | New Library of the University of Deusto, Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain | |
2012 |
Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts |
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2015 2017 |
Museum University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain Praemium Imperiale |