Tour: Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center
South facade from Norman Avenue.
It’s opening day for the Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center, a 15,000 square foot community hub that doubles the size of a previous library building in the neighborhood. Designed by Marble Fairbanks, the structure includes adult, young adult, and children reading rooms and collection spaces, and community spaces dedicated to library programming. Along with the library program, the two-story structure also includes lab spaces for interactive projects, a community event space, a lounge, small meeting rooms, and staff spaces for the environmental education center.
South facade from Norman Avenue.
South facade from Norman Avenue.
Library entrance from Norman Avenue.
The two-story structure is designed as one volume rotated and stacked atop the other and clad in two separate materials. Custom cast concrete panels formed by sandblasted wood formwork clad the ground floor volume, while sandblasted wood panels wrap the second floor.
South facade detail.
Cast concrete panels.
Southwest corner from Norman Avenue.
Southwest corner.
West facade.
Entry desk at the ground floor.
First floor bench with solar windows that will register the time of year with future floor markings.
Children’s area with custom designed rug featuring an insect motif. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer views to the bioswale outside.
Elevator with custom graphics noting the floor number.
Young adult fiction room with the capacity to be closed off for events or activities.
Display cases will feature items related to the environmental education center.
Second floor meeting space with movable partitions for flexible use.
Second floor reading garden with fruit bearing plants to attract birds.
Close-up of the sandblasted cedar wood panels cladding the second floor volume.
Looking down on the Scape-designed entry open space with bioswale to slow down rainwater runoff and reduce flooding.
Third floor roof deck for special events.
Solar panels installed at the roof deck help power the library with their bifacial design to collect energy from both sides of the panel.
Third floor pollinator garden with plant species designed to bloom throughout the year and attract a wide variety of pollinators.
Looking down on the entry open space and the second floor reading garden,
Architect: Marble Fairbanks; Landscape Architect: SCAPE / Landscape Architecture; Structure: Robert Silman Associates; MEP/FP Engineers & LEED: ads Engineers, PC; Client: Brooklyn Public Library; Program: Library; Location: Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY; Completion: Fall 2020.
CUMC Vagelos Education Center
Looking west on West 171st Street.
New York's latest, high-profile education building has opened on the campus of Columbia University Medical College in Washington Heights. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Gensler, the 14-story Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center houses classroom, simulation and training facilities for the college.
Close-up of the "Study Cascade" at the southeast corner.
Southeast corner from Haven Avenue.
Looking up at the east facade from Haven Avenue.
The building's iconic feature is the "Study Cascade," a south facing 14-story space, connected by a grand stair, with a variety of indoor spaces for individual and group interaction, outdoor rooms and terraces that foster collaborative learning amongst students and faculty. With the "Study Cascade" DS+R has sought to subvert the normative medical building typology by rethinking its circulation strategy, which the studio has focused on in a wide range of projects over the past few decades.
The "Study Cascade" at the south facade.
Southwest corner of the "Study Cascade."
GFRC paneling and Douglas fir wood clad the solid forms of the "Study Cascade," while the transparency of floor-to-ceiling glass with glass fin supports allows for open views of Manhattan and the Hudson River.
Close-up of the "Study Cascade" at the south facade.
West facade.
Looking up at the west facade.
Looking southeast from an outdoor terrace on the 13th floor.
View south from an outdoor terrace.
Grand stair at the lobby.
Architects: Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Gensler; Structural Engineer: Leslie E. Robertson Associates (LERA); Program: Education; Location: Washington Heights, New York, NY; Completion: 2016.
