Page 38 - College Planning & Management, July/August 2017

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PATHS OF GLORY
and Applied Analytical Chemistry, serves as the new home for the physics depart- ment and includes labs for the Zilber School of Public Health. Floor slabs, lighting, ventilation and other building systems con- form to the separate requirements of labs for the life sciences and physical sciences; for example, a below-grade core facility for condensed matter physics research was designed for sensitive instrumentation to protect equipment operation from the vi- brations of passing city traffic. This makes for a technically unusual combination, even if we are hardly ever called on to design single-discipline buildings these days.
The exterior expression of yellow ter- racotta, exposed concrete and metal panels is rendered as an assemblage of compo- nents, a metaphor for the research and innovation happening within. Dynamic and transparent, the building offers ample views of interior movement in the two- story lobby corridor and a communicating stair that links the third, fourth and fifth floors, in addition to offices and instruc- tional spaces on the upper floors.
The communicating stair is an impor- tant connective element — its purpose, besides conveying people, is to offer op- portunities for casual conversations and learning outside of formal settings — in a building that carries connectivity as a major theme. But the real action is on the ground floor, where the building serves as a pedestrian pathway indoors and
out. A loggia provides a covered walking
path during warmer months, and helps efficiently route foot traffic from the student union to the east, through the site and beyond to the rest of the quad. (Those outside pass near the relocated Happy-Go- Luckies, a 25-year-old sculpture by Guido Brink that represents the pulling together of all the sciences.) And the lobby, which accentuates the linear nature of the corri- dor’s east-west connection using horizon- tal channel glass, is the main thoroughfare throughout the colder months, as well
as a magnet for students all school year long. The pedestrian bridge across North Maryland Avenue from the IRC’s second floor remains, and will one day be replaced by an enclosed bridge to the new union.
On many older campuses, researchers hang out in their labs, and people from other departments don’t feel welcome.
38 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JULY/AUGUST 2017
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