Current issue
Plans for CRC landscaping and façade unveiled
As the design process nears completion, new drawings reveal
details of a revitalized north campus
by ZACH VEILLEUX
As architects from Mitchell/Giurgola continue
to work with members of the faculty,
administration and trustee communities to
refine the design of the “bridging” building
that will connect Smith and Flexner Halls,
newly released plans suggest for the first
time how the building will link to the north
part of the university’s distinctive promenade.
Several features of the building project,
which includes extensive renovations to
both Smith and Flexner Halls as well as the
construction of a multi-storied glass atrium
between them, have evolved since preliminary
designs were created this spring. In
addition, floor plans showing the layout of
lab benches, faculty offices and equipment
areas have been refined and there has been
new progress toward incorporating elements
of sustainable design.
As currently depicted, plans for the
Collaborative Research Center call for a
transparent, all-glass façade set back two
feet from the existing west façade of Smith
Hall. An elliptically curved portion of the
façade will extend into the interior of the
building, where it will become a wooden
partition. “Inside the building, this wooden
‘scroll’ will travel up through the six-story
atrium to create a warm and inviting place
to linger and discuss science in informal
meeting spaces,” says Paul Broches, a Mitchell/Giurgola partner who is serving as
one of the project’s three chief architects.
“This interior scroll will be woven together
with the glass façade, both wrapping the
communal space and linking indoors and
outdoors. Some floors will span across the
atrium while others will hold the edge of the
elliptical opening.” Exterior balconies on
four of the building’s seven above-ground
levels will provide an outdoor continuation
of indoor lobby space.
“The building’s façade has been simplified
and made more elegant since the first
design studies, and it now more accurately
reflects what’s happening inside in terms of
open space,” says George Candler, the university’s
associate vice president for planning
and construction. “The orientation of the
ellipse has been rotated 90 degrees in order
to make the floor plans more functional and
interesting.”
Other elements of the plans have also
evolved. Meeting spaces within the CRC
will include separate 15- and 30-seat conference
rooms on each floor of the building,
with the larger rooms overlooking the East
River. Conference spaces will be able to
accommodate a variety of seating configurations
and will be equipped with audio-visual
capabilities. A 200-seat lecture hall located
on the “B” level will open onto a large function
space suitable for receptions. On the
entry-level floor, there will be a café with
tables inside the building and outside in the
summer.
Based on input from faculty, floorplans
for the laboratory areas have largely been
finalized. As originally proposed, lab space
will be entirely contained within Smith and
Flexner Halls, and will be open in nature.
Benches will be located along exterior walls
to take advantage of natural light, and
shared equipment, procedure rooms and
cold-storage areas will make up the spine of
each building. Faculty offices and administrative-support
space will be in the buildings’
outer corners.
It’s outside, however, that the biggest
refinements to the plan have occurred.
Drawings created by Mitchell/Giurgola in
May did not depict detail of how the CRC,
which will serve as the primary entrance to
both Smith and Flexner Halls, will connect
to the north-south promenade that carries
most of the university’s pedestrian traffic.
But with the help of a landscape architecture
firm, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates,
a plan has been developed for the area now
occupied by the sunken driveway and parking
lot adjacent to 68th Street Receiving.
The plan proposes linking the CRC’s
main entrance to the existing marble walkway
with marble pavers, then extending the
marble into broad plaza areas to the north
and south. Rough-edged islands of evergreen
landscaping and a pool will break up
the plazas and provide shade, and the original
woodland planting that runs along the
eastern edge of the existing walkway will be
retained.
“The design that’s been proposed complements
the Dan Kiley landscape that
makes Rockefeller’s campus unique, and it
provides gathering spaces outside the CRC
for eating and informal meetings,” says Mr.
Candler.
The space between Smith Hall and the
President’s House, which currently houses
ventilation equipment and is difficult to
access, will also be relandscaped with native
and herbal plantings. Access to this sheltered
area will be provided from the CRC’s “C”
level. In addition, landscaping work north
of the esplanade — home of the temporary
tennis court — will provide direct pedestrian
access from the promenade to 68th Street
via the hanging staircase and an existing
gate that has been closed off for several
decades.
Landscaping decisions, like design and
engineering decisions, are being driven largely
by President Paul Nurse and Chair of the
Board Russ Carson’s desire to have the
buildings be environmentally sustainable. In
addition to employing a number of energy-conserving
technologies in the buildings’
power, ventilation and exhaust systems, the
architects have proposed several dramatic
features that would reduce the university’s
environmental impact. Under consideration
are external sun-control devices, low-emissivity
glass, heat-recovery systems, a planted
roof and a grey-water recycling system. In
addition, the construction manager will be
given a mandate to choose, when possible,
building materials that create no off-gassing,
are made from recycled materials and are
manufactured locally.
“The decision to retain the Flexner and
Smith buildings is the most significant sustainable
strategy in the project,” says Mr.
Broches. “Demolition and removal of these
two buildings, only to replace them with the
same structural components, would have
been enormously wasteful.”
Though design work on some details
continues — in particular, architects are
working on creating an appropriate awning
for the CRC’s main entrance — much of the
work has now shifted to creating detailed
construction plans that will serve as the
builder’s blueprints. Progress is also underway
on the “enabling” projects, such as
construction of temporary office space west
of the Bronk building, that must be completed
before Smith Hall can be vacated.
Meanwhile, Mr. Candler’s office is beginning
the process of reviewing proposals
from construction management firms.
“We’re judging proposals based on the
firms’ experience, personnel to be assigned
to the project and costs,” says Mr. Candler.
“We’re looking for a firm with proven
expertise in laboratories, that has done complex
renovations and that has worked successfully
in New York City.” A firm is
expected to be named in December in order
to facilitate a July groundbreaking.
December 15, 2006
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