Lehman Center for the Performing Arts

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Recognized as one of New York City’s best live music venues, the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts was recently reopened in time to celebrate 40years of great music and performances at Lehman College’s Bronx campus. The new renovation and addition breathes new life into to a 1970’s brutalist structure and creates a vibrant new entrance to the college.  The primary mission of the Center is to bring affordable, high quality and culturally diverse performances from around the world to the Bronx. In addition to its central functions as a concert and performance hall, the facility is an integral component in the life of the college and the surrounding neighborhood;  hosting a range of functions including lectures, seminars, recitals and graduation ceremonies for many of the area high schools.  Seen from the elevated subway station to the east, the new addition to the Performing Arts Center is a glowing and visible presence in the wider community.

The new glazed entrance pavilion, which adds 6,000 square feet of additional program, includes an expanded box office, administrative offices, restrooms and support spaces.  Specific upgrades to the 2,300 seat theater include a larger mezzanine lobby, a new concession stand and new interior finishes.  A primary objective of the renovation was to make the building accessible – in every sense of the word. The transparent glass addition contrasts with the solidity of the existing building’s opaque, limestone façade allowing views of the activities within the building, giving the structure a more welcoming and open appearance.  New ramps, lifts and an elevator provide routes to ADA accessible seating areas added at multiple levels within the hall so that all spectators have options for viewing positions and ticket prices.

Board-formed concrete walls enclose new bathrooms, mechanical and support spaces. The material was chosen for its structural properties as well as its compatibility with the color and texture of the limestone façade, and exposed concrete surfaces within the hall. To increase energy performance, the west-facing glazing has integrated louvers that protects from solar heat gain, an independent heating and cooling system so that administrative areas can be conditioned separately from the main hall, and a highly-insulated building envelope detailed to minimize thermal bridging. 

By opening a formerly impenetrable volume, the renovation has renewed the spirit of the concert hall and provides a dynamic and inviting venue for students and the public to experience quality performers from around the world.

The new glazed entrance pavilion, which adds 6,000 square feet of additional program, includes an expanded box office, administrative offices, restrooms and support spaces.  Specific upgrades to the 2,300 seat theater include a larger mezzanine lobby, a new concession stand and new interior finishes. A primary objective of the renovation was to make the building accessible – in every sense of the word. The transparent glass addition contrasts with the solidity of the existing building’s opaque, limestone façade allowing views of the activities within the building, giving the structure a more welcoming and open appearance.  New ramps, lifts and an elevator provide routes to ADA accessible seating areas added at multiple levels within the hall so that all spectators have options for viewing positions and ticket prices.

Board-formed concrete walls enclose new bathrooms, mechanical and support spaces. The material was chosen for its structural properties as well as its compatibility with the color and texture of the limestone façade, and exposed concrete surfaces within the hall.   To increase energy performance, the west-facing glazing has integrated louvers that protects from solar heat gain, an independent heating and cooling system so that administrative areas can be conditioned separately from the main hall, and a highly-insulated building envelope detailed to minimize thermal bridging.  By opening a formerly impenetrable volume, the renovation has renewed the spirit of the concert hall and provides a dynamic and inviting venue for students and the public to experience quality performers from around the world.

Awards and Publications:
2020 Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award

Delancey & Essex Street Garage

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The design goals for the facades of the Delancey & Essex St. Garage include the development of a lightweight, naturally ventilated, visually dynamic facade that contributes to the rich texture of the changing neighborhood. The proposed solution is a three dimensional, porous facade composed of 1.25” diameter cables that are woven as if on a loom. This concept of weaving is loosely associated with the history of the Lower East Side and the early garment industry there.
The pattern of the cable design is inspired by the work of various abstract artists including Optical Art works such as Francois Morellet’s “Grillage” drawings that are composed of a system of simple grids overlaid in a way that creates new larger scale patterns. The facade solution was produced by offsetting two layers of stainless steel-jacketed composite cables, which when viewed together, create moire patterns that seemingly move across the face of the building as the viewer’s position changes by walking or driving up the street. To achieve this effect, the exterior plane of cables, which stretch from the second to sixth floors, was shaped so that it folds out as much as 2 feet from the face of the back layer of cables, which are in a flat plane.
The cables will be attached by stainless steel o-rings sleeved around the cable and connected to steel tube “combs.” The cables will have integral end fittings that will have turnbuckles for tightening and adjustability. The termination details are simple and unobtrusive.

Awards and Publications:
2018       AIANY Architecture Citation Award
2017       Delancey and Essex Parking Garage / Michielli + Wyetzner Architects Arch Daily November 24, 2017
2017       SARA NY Design Excellence Award
2017       Metropolis Magazine May 2017 City Designer’s Picks for New York
2013       We Build the City, NYC’s Design + Construction Excellence Program. ORO Editions
2013       NYC Chapter AIA Projects Merit Award
2011       NYC Public Design Commission Excellence in Design Award 2011
2011       Oculus,”From NIMBY to YIMBY”, Winter 2011
2011       Architectural Record,”Investments in Public Architecture Pay Off for the City”, September 2011
2011       Real Estate Journal, “Michielli + Wyetzner Architects to begin $4 million cable façade renovation, August 9, 2011
2011       New York Observer, “Finally! A Pretty Parking Garage”, June 29, 2011

New York Hospital Queens: Astoria Primary Care Clinic

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This new off- site primary care clinic is one in a series of new neighborhood practices intended to raise the profile of the New York Hospital Queens in the surrounding community. Located on a corner site along the busy thoroughfare of 30th Avenue in Astoria, the distinctive design is intended to give this satellite facility a powerful presence in the neighborhood.

A new entrance canopy was added to provide shelter and act as an emblem for the facility. The canopy leads into a ceiling plane within the waiting room; visible from the exterior it creates a strong form along the street.

A perforated metal screen was used to mask the irregular pattern of existing windows on the ground floor. The screen allows daylight to enter during the day and artificial light to emit a mysterious glow on the exterior in the evening. Floating above the newly clad ground floor, the second story brick box is unchanged save for the front elevation where the two existing windows were combined into one overt horizontal opening increasing the natural light in the upper waiting room and forming a distinct composition in harmony with the glass and steel elevation below.

The two-story brick building was completely gutted to accommodate new exam and consultation rooms. The main circulating corridor on both floors is located along the perimeter of the cross street to allow natural light to enter into the patient area. Waiting rooms on the first and second floor will allow ample amounts of controlled natural light into the space.

Distinct geometric volumes interact with each other at the reception desk and a new boldly-colored enclosed stair volume provides a dramatic transition between floors and is also visible from the street. In addition, an illuminated ceiling spills light onto the sidewalk through the floor to ceiling glass contributing to the unique presence of NYHQ in the surrounding area.

Awards and Publications:
2016       Masonry Design Magazine “This Satellite Facility is a Powerful Presence in the Community” May 2016
2016       SNAP Architectural News + Products “Curb Appeal” Jan/Feb 2016
2015       AIA National Healthcare Design Honor Award

Callen-Lorde Community Health Center

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Mental Health & Primary Care Clinic

The new Callen-Lorde Community Health Center satellite clinic combines two separate but related disciplines on two floors in an 8-story, turn-of-the-century loft building in Chelsea in New York City. The new off-site practice houses a mental health facility on the 5th floor and a primary care clinic on the 4th floor. The health center sought to develop a site that would meet the very different regulatory requirements of the two practices which included occupying separate spaces. Through design, a seamless experience is created for patients accessing their behavioral and medical care. The setting provides licensed medical care and mental health with case managers floating between the two spaces ensuring that patients receive both services and that there is no conflict between the treatment plans or therapeutic regimens.

The square layout of the 5th floor has service spaces along the east and west party walls with consultation rooms along the north and south window walls. Channel glass partitions along the corridors allow natural light to enter deep into the facility. The channel glass provides the necessary acoustical and visual privacy required for psychotherapy while maintaining a robust surface for the occasional patient impact. Upon entering, a linear waiting room under a lowered blue ceiling sits opposite the reception desk and large group room. With its distinctive circular perforated doors the multi-purpose meeting room is divisible into two smaller group rooms and opens up completely to the waiting area for larger events. The cork floors and exposed, surface-mounted light fixtures with the adjacent baffle ceilings are intended to give the new mental health facility a warm and modern atmosphere antithetical to typical institutional healthcare design. A complement of cool and calming blues were employed to complete the palette.

The primary care clinic comprises half of the 4th floor. Intended to serve the patients of the mental health facility one floor above, a similar palette of materials was employed in the design. Exam rooms line the south facing wall with clerestory windows allowing natural light to enter the corridor and interior exam rooms across the hall. Strong graphics and a baffle ceiling along with similarly blue-colored wall and ceiling planes provide a distinct look for the facility which is in harmony with the mental health facility on the floor above.

Awards and Publications:

2018       AIANY Interiors Speed Presentation Selection

Port Washington House

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Located on Manhasset Bay in Long Island, this house is designed to maximize the views to the west across the water, especially the sunsets, which are cherished by the owner. After a fire destroyed the existing home, Michielli + Wyetzner Architects redesigned this house on the North Shore with an income-producing tenant apartment on the ground floor and an owner’s two story residence above. A wall of hurricane-resistant glass encloses the double-height living room and adjacent dining and kitchen area.  An open, sculptural fireplace is a focal point of the interior.

Above is a master bedroom suite with the master bath overlooking the two-story volume and sharing the vista across the water. An automatic overhead glass door protects an enclosed porch from the elements in inclement weather. Located off the master bedroom, this indoor/ outdoor space provides a refuge with tremendous vistas year round.

PHI National Headquarters

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This five-floor, 40,000 square foot interior encompasses the offices, workshops, training areas and technology centers for three independent, but programmatically linked organizations: PHI, ICS & CHCA. Delivering high-quality care to the disabled constituents they serve, the users required a space especially suited to the unique needs of each organization.

The design provides distinct elements to make each floor, which is dedicated to a specific organization, unique. Elements common to each, such as cafés and lounges provide a sense of coherence across the build-out. Located in the top floors of a 14-story building, low walls and glass partitions provide natural light and views outdoors from essentially every office or workstation.

Awards and Publications:
2013       New York Real Estate Journal, “Michielli + Wyetzner designs new space for three not for profits”, July 2013

NoHo Loft

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The design of this 2,000 square foot loft in Greenwich Village for a couple in media and advertising business required a flexible condition that could accommodate the owners’ four teenage children when home from college and also retain the couple’s privacy. Located in a former industrial textile loft from the 19th Century, a series of moveable glass panels provides privacy for the master bedroom from the sitting/media room while allowing natural light to enter deep into the space. When not required, the panels slide away to create an expanded master suite. A sleeping loft was inserted above the closets and master bathroom to act as the visiting children’s dormitory. The black kitchen surround was inserted into the existing brick and tin-ceilinged envelope creating a focus for the public living area.

H20 Restaurant and Lounge

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H2O restaurant is the key component of a complete renovation of a 7,800 square- foot building on the plaza level of the Waterside Plaza complex on the East River and 25th Street in Manhattan. A two-thousand square-foot commercial kitchen serves a 100-seat dining room that can be combined with the adjacent community room for larger gatherings. A back-lit interior glass wall with a custom-designed honeycomb interlayer is transparent when viewed frontally, but when viewed from oblique angles has the effect of looking through water.

NYU Medical Center Courtyard

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2011 Winner of American Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award, the 6,000 square foot NYU Langone Medical Center Courtyard is bounded on all four sides by existing medical center building and sits above an existing complex of basement laboratories. MWA and landscape architect Joanna Pertz, designed a new elevated planting bed above the only section of the courtyard situated over earth to be the focus of the space. Two existing marble lion sculptures bookend the planter where birch trees, mondo grass and ferns are clustered on the south end of the planter that gives way to a mounded lawn at the north that enjoys direct sunlight. Precast concrete steps wrap three sides of the planter. Along with a row of black granite benches opposite an informal seating area is created for people to gather and relax. New wood table seating occupies the zone to the south of the courtyard creating an outdoor extension of the adjacent interior café. A line of large-scaled dish planters with perennials and birch trees masks the solid stone facade at the west. Gray precast concrete pavers provide a sense of scale for the courtyard with a beach stone border acting as a transition to the surrounding facades.

Awards and Publications:
2012       ASLA Design Merit Award

Lehman College Amphitheater

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Situated near the college’s principal south entrance and adjacent to the campus’s primary north-south circulation route, the design of a new amphitheater for Lehman College converts an underutilized plaza into a fully-supported multi-use outdoor theater for 120 spectators. The design concept is to sensitively integrate the spectator seating into a gently sloping extension of campus landscaping which focuses on a stage backdrop that is unified with, and elevates the existing architecture.
Terraces with board-formed architectural concrete retaining walls and stone seating are merged with a gently sloping ramp which provides access to seating areas and an accessible route to the adjacent Speech & Theater Building. To provide both a backdrop for the stage and permit views out of the ground floor spaces in the adjacent building, a field of closely grouped steel columns provides a porous and sculptural barrier. The network of 3” stainless steel columns spaced roughly two feel apart, will screen the existing building and provide a unique background to light and inhabit. Actors will be able to move within the ten-foot depth of the screen. Provisions will be made for the support of additional scrims and scenery.
Over-stage lighting will be supported by slender steel tubes cantilevered from the soffit of the existing building. Additionally, two platforms will be provide locations for light fixtures positioned in front of the stage. Infrastructure will be in place for easy hook-up of sound boards and projectors.
In addition to hosting various theater programs, screenings, and concerts, the new landscape creates an inviting space for students and professors to informally gather and relax during the day.

Hauppague Public Library

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(Currently in design)

The proposed design for the permanent home for the Hauppauge Public Library directly reflects the community’s desire for a modest, economical structure which is closely connected to nature. The design integrates the building massing with the surrounding landscaping by keeping all functions on one floor, in a long, low mass sitting below the existing canopy of trees that will seem to have grown up from within the wooded site.

The s-shaped floor plan encloses two outdoor courtyards that will permit daylight to enter the building from the north and south and establish a focus for the interior spaces. The north courtyard serves as the entrance from the west parking area. A bridge-like path will cross a water garden, immediately indicating that one is entering a special place. The water will be a link to its life-giving, restorative associations, to the site’s location at the source of two north-south rivers and to the name Hauppauge -“Land of Sweet Water”. The water garden will also function as a teaching tool to demonstrate an environmentally sensitive approach to retaining rainwater and returning wastewater to the ground. The south courtyard is contiguous with the virginal wooded, eastern portion of the site. From the interior, library visitors will use the south courtyard for reading and other passive activities and as a route to garden paths through the trees.

The entrance leads to an open lobby/display area with adjacent circulation, public computers, and periodical seating areas. This will be part of a continuous zone of open public space which will be the connective thread through the library. A series of spaces will unfold as patrons meander through the building. From any space in the library, patrons will be able to see directly into the courtyards and to the north and south gardens, and be able to take note of the weather, time of day and colors of the seasons—giving them a direct connection to the natural world.

Plan Layout

Three primary user groups will be identified with the three wings of the structure. The quiet adult reading area will be located in a rectangular zone to the North. The central bay will house the young adult reading area and the children’s area will occupy a more free-form volume to the South. Each of the three major user spaces will have a unique quality. The adult area will have a long-span roof structure that will permit column-free flexibility for future changes of use. The young adult area will have open table seating area and a semi-enclosed living-room like space with lounge seating and flat panel screens. The children’s room will be the most colorful and dynamic space, with curving walls enclosing a large program area, columns partitioning space for older children, and a ramp down to a sunken play and story time area for the youngest children.

Support spaces, including a large community meeting room and staff areas will border the public user areas. Bathrooms, mechanical rooms, music/video rooms and other support spaces will occupy a compact, linear volume along the East edge of the site. The staff will occupy a bar of space stretching North-South along the west façade with open-view corridors to the children’s and young adult areas. The multi-use meeting room will be located near the entrance and have access to the South courtyard.

A palette of natural materials is proposed for the interiors. Mahogany window frames and natural wood wall panels will add warmth and color. A living wall, proposed at the building entrance will bring a field of plant materials into the building adding color and texture as well as increasing the interior air quality. Architectural concrete will serve as the building’s structure as well as a robust finish material. Most of the raised-flooring will be covered with carpet tiles.

The Library’s Exterior

The horizontal, moss-green glazed brick walls of the exterior volume will blend in with the existing tree canopy on the site. The East and West elevations have few windows so that the interior is protected from the glare from low sun angles. Low planters will breakdown the scale of the wall surface and introduce planting above grade level. The planters will continue beyond the edges of the library and enclose gardens on the north and south of the building. The garden walls will be another way to tie the building to the landscape while separating it from the adjacent roadway and parking lots.

The north and south elevations will have low planter walls and be fully-glazed above, allowing transparent connections between the interior and exterior. The garden walls enclose outdoor rooms which will be experienced as extensions of the interior. The concrete roof parapet on the north and south walls will have scuppers sculpted into them to highlight the path of rain water collected on the roof as it flows down and moves to basins where it will be collected for irrigation or returned to the soil.

Scuppers with rain chains will also be introduced in the courtyards. They will be smaller in size and be coordinated with recessed text in the concrete parapet which will wrap the two courtyards. The text will be another opportunity to accentuate the uniqueness of this place in Hauppauge. Text proposals to be considered might include the following quote from Simeon Wood’s A History of Hauppauge, Long Island, New York (1920):

“Humanity, like water, is ever in motion. The babbling brooks of Hauppauge still
wind their way to the silent Nissequogue, whose waters ceaselessly flow to mingle
with the vast and mighty ocean”.

The design team’s intent is to make the project as uniquely Hauppaugian as possible and to reflect the Library Board and the community’s goal that the new building support the Library’s mission to serve locally yet reach globally.

Mastics Moriches Shirley Community Library

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The Mastics, Moriches, Shirley community’s design challenge was to craft a new 60,000 square- foot library that does not overwhelm its natural, park-like setting. The site is located within a former 100- acre golf course that will be developed as a community park with active and passive uses. To reduce the impact of the building, MWA proposed a single-story structure that uses earth berms to permit the surrounding meadow to rise over the roof of the building, providing continuity to the park. The result is a solution that shapes and is shaped by the landscape being completely unified with it.

Patrons cross through a wooded buffer of remnant pine barrens, which separates the parking area from the building’s three entry courtyards- one for the main adult library entrance, a second dedicated to the teen / children’s library, and a third for the multi-use community spaces. The community rooms are grouped in a zone separated from the secure area of the library for access after-hours.

The reading areas for each constituent group line the glazed southern perimeter of the structure. This edge follows the shoreline of an expansive lake, providing exceptional views of the water and distant landscape, connecting it in spirit to the community’s unique natural resources- namely the Smith Point County Park Beach and the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge.   The building’s layout supports the Library’s mission is to be a place of growth, discovery and life-long learning.

Awards and Publications:
2018       AIA Long Island Chapter- Commendation, Unbuilt 

Taipei Pop Music Center

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Submitted in response to the RFP issued by the R.O.C. government of Taiwan for a new pop music center, Michielli + Wyetzner Architects’ design is a cloud-like nebulous form that is designed to change and grow with the natural development of the city while meeting the rapidly changing demands of the pop music industry. The framework of the design is an armature that supports an infrastructure built to serve various types of public events by lantern-like, multi-function cubes assembled on the roof place above. The solution of a tractable infrastructure allows elements to be added or subtracted. The design is pliable and scalable; it can be altered to meet specific project needs, budgets, and schedules.

Air Force Village Chapel

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This proposal for the Air Force Village Chapel competition is composed of four independent pavilions that are similarly unified in purpose and common goals. The design satisfies the need for communal worship while at the same time providing places for independent contemplation and inspiration. The design concept begins with an investigation of the threshold; the passage from the outer, secular realm of everyday lives to an inner, sacred space that is the place for individual devotion and communal worship. Traditionally, this threshold is not much thicker than the door above it: here we see this passageway as an expansive garden with the chapel at its center. The path through the garden makes us aware that we’re entering a special place, one where the quotidian gives way to the divine. The chapel is conceived of as a series of pavilions; their spaces designed to give the feeling of clearings in a forest, of calm amidst the unknown. Protected and uplifting, these rooms are defined by the densely planted, indigenous southern Texas landscaping surrounding them. The garden – the threshold – mediates between the secular realm and sacred one. All the pavilions – the Narthex, the Sanctuary, the Multi-Faith Chapel and the Blessed Sacrament – will have glass walls and be set directly into the lush, densely planted landscape, drawing nature into the sphere of the divine. The slim, steel columns that support the roofs will echo the trees outside. The ceilings and roof are composed of cloud-like transparent membranes that will filter daylight and in the evening, when lit from within, have the glow of a lantern.

Ford Engineering Design Center

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LEED Certified Silver

Davis Brody Bond, LLP

The new Ford Engineering Design Center is a 75,000 square foot addition to Northwestern University’s McCormick Engineering School. It is a facility for teaching collaborative and creative multi-disciplinary work skills addressing the full spectrum of design themes in the school’s undergraduate, graduate and professional curricula. The building contains flexible laboratory, classroom and project spaces for pedagogical design activities.

A linear atrium is the central organizing element, which contains the three above-grade levels of teaching space. Glass stair treads, glass railings and glass bridges in the sky-lit atrium allow natural light to penetrate all levels. The cast-in-place concrete frame structure is exposed; wood panels and wood windows add richness and warmth to the interior. The north end of the atrium is connected by a bridge to the existing academic facility’s second level. Next to the building’s entrance, landscaped terraces step from grade down to basement level, allowing natural light and views into a two-story shop area. Student models and experiments are assembled and displayed in this shop, which can be viewed from the street and the atrium’s first floor. The shop’s prominent location reflects the importance of the creative process and the collaborative spirit of the work being done within the building. The building is detailed to be a teaching tool that subtly exposes the building’s structure and mechanical systems. Registered for LEED Silver certification, the building has a green roof, an under floor displacement air system and a sun tracking device that controls automatic sunshades and lighting levels. A monitoring panel in the entrance lobby allows students to view the building’s systems and energy consumption.

One significant design challenge was to develop an image for the Ford Center that reflected the creative, high-tech work being developed there while making sure the structure fit seamlessly within the context of the existing collegiate gothic campus. This solution matches the scale of the neighboring buildings by keeping the height low, divides the massing into distinct volumes and details the transparent glass curtain wall to achieve a rich, vertical rhythm. The Design Center is clad in limestone to match the adjacent structures.

Joseph J. and Violet J. Jacobs Building

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Davis Brody Bond, LLP

As a major component of Polytechnic University’s plan to consolidate its academic programs at its Brooklyn campus, the Joseph J. and Violet J. Jacobs Building was designed as an addition to Rogers Hall, the campus’s primary academic building. The 86,000 square foot facility contains five levels of academic space that includes lecture halls, science laboratories, engineering studio-classrooms and computer labs. In addition to increasing academic space, this project also satisfies the university’s desire to develop student life amenities by adding a fully-equipped athletic center on a campus with few available building sites. This design places a NCAA regulation gymnasium on street level below the academic floors and locates locker rooms and fitness spaces on the basement level. Above the gym, a courtyard allows abundant natural light to the academic floors that connect seamlessly with the existing structure. A three-story lobby provides access to all spaces and provides a new entrance to the university from a major street in downtown Brooklyn. Used for displays and as a break-out space for the multi-purpose gymnasium, the lobby is perfectly scaled to the university campus and at night is a glowing beacon that establishes a new public face for the school.

Eskind Biomedical Library

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Davis Brody Bond, LLP

The 80,000 square foot Eskind Biomedical Library at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center was designed to be a focal point of the Medical Center Campus and a link to the traditional Vanderbilt campus. We accomplished that goal by massing the building in response to the different scales of the two campuses, and by creating outdoor spaces to allow for a continuous flow of exterior space. The print collection and staff functions are housed in a clearly organized, compact rectangular volume. Small group study rooms, core elements and other support spaces are located in a protective zone along the south wall. Reading and study areas are located on three levels in an open area filled with natural light. Enclosed by a north-facing 52-foot transparent glass wall, study carrels, tables and lounge seating areas have views to a landscaped campus. Bridges cross a four-story atrium that connect reading and stack areas, and skylights allow indirect light to penetrate the building. The linear atrium, detailed with cherry wood surrounds, opens the building making it easy to orient oneself in the multi-story structure. The fourth floor, also connected to the atrium, is the new Center for Informatics, used for research and training in the application of information technology to the health sciences. The design of the building reflects both the dynamic nature of the continued introduction of new technology and the inviting qualities of a traditional library. The project received the AIA/ American Library Association Award of Excellence Award in 1999, and the AIA New York State Excellence in Design Award in 1995.

Harlem Children’s Zone

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Davis Brody Bond, LLP

The Harlem Children’s Zone is a not-for-profit community outreach organization whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for children and families in some of New York City’s most devastated neighborhoods. Founded in 1970, HCZ has centers throughout Harlem, intentionally developing programs in neighborhoods where other agencies are not located and poor children and families have no one, or even a place to turn for help. Located on 125th Street in Manhattan, this new 92,000 square foot brick and glass building houses the Promise Academy Charter School, adult education programs and the headquarter offices for the entire HCZ organization. The two upper floors house the executive offices and adult education programs, while the middle three floors contain the school classrooms and offices. The ground floor contains a cafeteria and commercial kitchen, meeting rooms, a school library as well as two lobbies to accommodate the different user groups for the building. The basement of the six-story structure contains a new two-story high, full court gymnasium with locker facilities and music rooms. With views from the sidewalk and the ground floor cafeteria, the gym is intended to be used by the school for athletics as well as by the community for events such as lectures and dances. Because the building is inhabited by different user groups and is used throughout the day and night, spaces are designed to be multi-functional, with large storage closets and materials that are low-maintenance and highly durable.

14th Street Residence Hall

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Davis Brody Bond, LLP

Located in Greenwich Village in Manhattan this twenty-story, 210,000 square foot dormitory contains 172 suites for 620 students. Amenities include a sky-lit dining hall that seats 300 people, a full commercial kitchen, study spaces, meeting rooms, exercise room and a street level cafe. The university asked for a plan with generous natural light that maximizes the number of undergraduate beds. The architects created apartment-style suites, each containing two 2-person bedrooms, a living area, bathroom and kitchen, all within a 700 square foot footprint. Configured around a central courtyard garden, each suite provides natural light to bedrooms and living rooms.  The sky lit dining room uses fritted glass to filter the direct sun while providing views to the surrounding exterior garden. Wood panels line the walls to create a warm and rich environment. Materials such as terrazzo, stainless steel, and glass make the facility low-maintenance and highly durable. According to the New York Times, graduating students are reluctant to leave the comfort of this well-appointed living facility, “with a glass-roofed dining hall design that rivals any hip restaurant.” (“Dorm Destiny: Design too Good to Leave,” May 13, 1999.)

Othmer Residence Hall

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Davis Brody Bond, LLP

The new Othmer Residence Hall is a critical element in Polytechnic University’s expansion plan that provides on-campus housing for the first time in their downtown Brooklyn campus. This 400 bed dormitory is a vital component of the university’s mission to provide an active 24/7 campus for their students while opening new possibilities for improved national student recruitment. Designed as part of an expansion master plan that includes the new Jacobs Academic Building, the massing of the new tower was designed to align with the central commons area which is the focus of the campus. The primary exterior materials of glass and precast concrete are compatible with the adjacent Dibner Library and help to create a cohesive campus precinct. A clear glass curtain wall encloses elevator lobbies on each floor and provides dramatic views of Brooklyn. The twenty-story building has eight floors of double rooms dedicated to freshmen. The remaining twelve floors are suites with shared living spaces. Each floor has access to a single or double-height lounge area. The ground floor also has common study rooms, student lounges and resident advisor and campus health offices. The Othmer Residence has brought a new level of activity to the campus which adds a new component to the life of downtown Brooklyn and has helped to convert Polytechnic from a commuter school to a vital urban campus.