Page 22 - College Planning & Management, October 2017

AT FIRST GLANCE
portions for such developments. The idea of openness, for example, is expressed through a gradual transition from the streetscape into and through Manhattanville’s Jerome L. Green Science Center, which features high expanses of glass curtain wall leading to a great lobby. The lobby cuts through the building from east to west, displaying the campus’ location between Broadway and its elevated subway line to the east and the Hudson River, about two blocks to the west.
22 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / OCTOBER 2017
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On the building’s west side, a tree-lined plaza — along with the campus’ perimeter sidewalks, also tree lined — together serve as a conceptual gateway to Manhattanville’s “network of green spaces.” The gateway leads pedestrians, both students and the wider public, into and through the campus along tree-lined landscaped paths, Cooper says.
At the center, at a point mid-block on the campus grid, will sit a green square for gathering and sitting. It’s a circulation sequence that could be described, in either direction, as streetscape- gateway-paths-green square. As Cooper says, the configuration replicates classic campus walks and quads.
Amenities are attractive and contextual: large, regionally quar- ried rocks along the pathways serve as benches; there are vari-
ous native species of trees; and large rectangular blocks provide seating on the perimeter plaza. The blocks are constructed of wood salvaged from demolished light industrial buildings previously on the site.
It is a spot that, along with various other outdoor places on this emerging campus, achieves at least two things. First, the campus in part through its outdoor space reorients the imme- diate area, establishing a general notion of domain, as Cooper puts it, similar to areas surrounding, but not necessarily a
part of, other campuses — for example, New York University
in Manhattan. And second, Manhattanville’s inviting outdoor network offers “an opportunity for exchange in a casual, but also programmed way,” between disciplines, among students and between the university and the community, Cooper adds.
PHOTOS © SCOTT BERMAN