41 Cooper Square, the new academic building for The Cooper Union,
aspires to manifest the character, culture and vibrancy of both the 150
year-old institution and of the city in which it was founded. A
building that reflects its values and aspirations as a center for
advanced and innovative education in Art, Architecture and Engineering.
Photo
Iwan Baan
The building reverberates with light, shadow and transparency via a
high performance exterior double skin whose semi-transparent layer of
perforated stainless steel wraps the building’s glazed envelope to
provide critical interior environmental control, while also allowing
for transparencies to reveal the creative activity occurring within.
Photo
Iwan Baan
Photo
Iwan Baan
Responding to its urban context, the sculpted facade establishes a
distinctive identity for Cooper Square. The building’s corner entry
lifts up to draw people into the lobby in a deferential gesture towards
the institution’s historic Foundation Building. The facade registers
the iconic, curving profile of the central atrium as a glazed figure
that appears to be carved out of the Third Avenue facade, connecting
the creative and social heart of the building to the street.
Photo
Iwan Baan
Photo
Iwan Baan
Photo
Iwan Baan
Internally, the building is conceived as a vehicle to foster
collaboration and cross-disciplinary dialogue among the college’s three
schools, previously housed in separate buildings.
A vertical piazza, the central space for informal social, intellectual
and creative exchange, forms the heart of the new academic building.
An undulating lattice envelopes a 20-foot wide grand stair which
ascends four stories from the ground level through the sky-lit central
atrium, which itself reaches to the full height of the building. This
vertical piazza is the social heart of the building, providing a place
for impromptu and planned meetings, student gatherings, lectures, and
for the intellectual debate that defines
the academic environment.
Photo
Iwan Baan
Photo
Iwan Baan
Photo
Iwan Baan
From the double-high entry lobby, the grand stair ascends four
stories to terminate in a glazed double-high student lounge overlooking
the city. On the fifth through ninth floors, sky lobbies and meeting
places, including a student lounge, seminar rooms, lockers, and seating
areas overlooking the cityscape, are organized around the central
atrium. Sky bridges span the atrium to create connections between these
informal spaces.
Photo
Iwan Baan
Photo
Iwan Baan
Photo
Iwan Baan
Photo
Iwan Baan
Photo
Iwan Baan
Built to LEED Gold standards and likely to achieve a Platinum
rating, 41 Cooper Square will be the first LEED-certified academic
laboratory building in New York City.
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Axonometric Site Plan
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan Basement One Level
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan Level One
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan Level Two
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan Level Four
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Plan Level Nine
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Section
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Section
Drawing courtesy Morphosis
Atrium rotated views
Total area: 175,000 gross square feet
Completeed: 2009
www.arcspace.com