The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art – New Academic Building

Sciame was the Construction Manager responsible for the construction of the new academic building for the Arts and Sciences at the Cooper Union. It is essentially a vertical piazza contained within a semi-transparent, rectangular enclosure that articulates the classroom and laboratory spaces inside. The eight-story block is comprised of three intensified plazas, one above the other, that are connected by the 120’ atrium space that contains the circulation stairways. The stairways function dually as circulation and as oversized lanterns, each being clad on the exterior with illuminated translucent material.

Serviced by a skip-stop elevator system that has only two stops for eight floors, this building operates on a rhythm of spatial expansion and compression that will draw users to climb through it. The social legs of the building are in the grand stairs, but the heart is on the fourth and seventh-story sky lobbies that surround the staircase atrium. It is in these aerial piazzas that all typical institutional amenities are located: meeting rooms, social space, seminar rooms, wireless hubs, restrooms, phones. These are the key social spaces for students, faculty and visitors – the places, in fact, where much of contemporary education actually takes place.