New York University, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, East Bldg. Renov

This renovation in New York University’s historic Greenwich Village campus addresses the shifting programmatic needs of a major academic organization, and provides infrastructural upgrades for three aging buildings to meet LEED gold standards. 

The largest component of this project is the gut renovation of the East Building to house three of Steinhardt’s premier departments on seven contiguous floors and provide a consolidated institutional identity for the school. Combining faculty offices, meeting areas and a series of unique functional spaces, the design maximizes exchange and interaction among faculty, students and staff. 

Each floor is organized as a perimeter of offices and an internal core. The perimeter offices are placed strategically to allow for the infiltration of daylight, and the cores are developed as architecturally recognizable features with unique programmatic identities that encourage gathering and collaboration. The interaction between core and perimeter activates the hallways, and the sculpted ceiling at each core allows for indirect lighting and spatial definition of multiple functions. 

The renovation also encompasses building-wide infrastructure upgrades, which include connecting the building to NYU’s cogeneration plant for chilled and high-temperature hot water, and replacing outmoded, non-compliant and inefficient mechanical systems.  

The renovation was divided into two phases to enable continuous occupation of the building throughout construction. The first phase encompasses floors seven and eight, home for the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, as well as floors five and six, half of the building’s designated floors for the Department of Teaching and Learning. 

Phase two, completed in September 2013, encompassed the sub-cellar, entry lobby, and floors two to four, which include the balance of the floors for the Department of Teaching and Learning.

“The solution was resolved wonderfully with materials and color. The open core spaces support collaborative learning.”–2013 jury

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