A4004 Comprehensive Studio IV
INSTRUCTORS: Stern, MaraniPROJECT
A new facility for the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts
INTRODUCTION
The Bard Center is a relatively young institution. Though holding no permanent collection of its own, it is gaining a reputation for scholarly exhibitions and lecture series on various aspects of the decorative arts. Presently the center occupies a converted town-house on Manhattan's upper westside, a facility inappropriate for the center's growing needs and long-term goals. The problem then is to design a facility that, though having a museum-like aspect, also functions as a significant educational institution.
The new bard center will be located on the sought side of Fortieth Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue. The site, currently vacant, faces both the New York Public Library and Bryant Park. Urbanistically, it is an extremely important and prominent location, offering additional opportunities for expression beyond the typical Manhattan site.
The new Center presents a particular challenge to the architect: it is at once a signature building as well as a multifunctional facility with tight spatial constraints. To begin with, students will analyze the existing Bard Center as well as some similar facilities to gain an understanding of this building type; its similarities and differences from a typical art museum, its role as a scholarly center. After the building is sketched out, it will be designed in detail as a series of related exercises including the design of a specific exhibition to be curated by the student who will choose the subject. In the final stage the overall design will be refined with structural and constructional issues introduced in relationship to the plan and to the building's exterior expression.
Suitability of plan, section and architectural character to the building's program and context will be the standard against which the effectiveness of individual decisions made along the way will be measured.
PROGRAM (approximate areas in square feet )
Garden/Terrace at designers discretion Entrance Foyer 1000 Reception 500 Coats 500 Sales/Bookstore 1000 Library 2000 Auditorium (300 seats) for film, video, lectures 3000 Classrooms (8 at 500) 4000 Seminar Rooms (4 at 250) 1000 Cafe/Restaurant 2000 Exhibition Space 15000 Toilets/Telephone 1000 Public Circulation (10%) 5000 Faculty Offices (2 at 250)+(8 at 150) 1700 Administration 2000 Staff lockers/Toilets 500 Staff Common facilities 500 Visiting Curator Apartments (2 at 1000) 2000 Kitchen 1000 Service/Trash 2000 Mechanical (basement level) 4000 Storage 3000 Curatorial Preparation Area 3000 Janitor 500 Loading Dock 1000 Service Circulation (5%) 2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Total 57,700 Note: a 20 feet floor-to-floor height is assumed