A double wall of glass with construction manager Sciame and perforated and subcontractors W&W Glass stainless steel conveys and A. Zahner Co. streamlined Cooper Union’s delivery and kept the system within the budget, putting the commitment to forward- building in the running to earn thinking education. Platinum LEED certification—a first for an academic laboratory in New York City. THE EAST VILLAGE HAS LONG Located on the east side of been an in-your-face kind of Third Avenue between 6th and 7th neighborhood, where people streets, the facility is a vertical let you know what they’re all campus designed to foster cross about whether you like it or not. collaboration between The Thom Mayne of architecture firm Cooper Union’s three disciplines. Morphosis took this legacy into A sky-lit central atrium reaching account when designing The the structure’s full 11-story Cooper Union’s newest building— height illuminates a 20-foot-wide a 175,000-square-foot facility stair that ascends four floors containing studios, classrooms, to a student lounge that acts and laboratories for the institution’s as the facility’s social hub. art, architecture, and engineering The classrooms themselves are programs. To convey the school’s designed to be reconfigurable commitment to free, forward- to meet the needs of the school’s thinking education, the architect different disciplines. This flexibility clad the structure’s warped was also built into the cladding geometry in a high-tech double wall system, whose two layers—one a of glass and perforated stainless weather barrier of glass, the other steel panels. While the extra cost an aesthetic face of stainless associated with double walls often steel—can adapt to environmental makes them infeasible, the digitally conditions and the position of the integrated design process worked sun. “The perforated metal skin out by Morphosis in collaboration is operable and contributes to the
41 Cooper Square 25 heating and cooling of the interior,” Previous spread Clad in a double wall explains Andrea Tzvetkov, project of glass and an operable metal skin, The Cooper Union’s new academic architect for Morphosis. “It is closed building creates a new face for the during the summer when the sun is school’s renowned design curriculum. beating down, and open during the Facing, top The school as seen from winter to let in the sun’s warmth.” Third Avenue below 6th Street. Facing, center Electric actuators are Fabricated out of 304 stainless wired to a centralized control unit to steel sheet, the metal panels were operate the outer wall, which is given an angel hair finish controlled by software that monitors the whose random grit lines conceal season and the sun’s position. Facing, below Perforation holes are the scuffs and scrapes that 1/8-inch diameter, covering between can accumulate over time. 50 and 90 percent of the panels to The perforation holes are 1⁄8-inch reduce glare yet maintain views. diameter and cover between Right A transparent facade at street level is a symbolic gesture inviting the 50 percent and 90 percent of the public into the space. panels, maintaining views through Center The 2-by-6-foot panels are the exterior wall whether it is open welded to aluminum frames set 1 foot or closed while at the same time away from the glass wall, except on the reducing glare enough to make it west facade where they project from the facade as much as 12 feet above the easy to use a computer even when building’s main entrance. the sun is hitting the building full Below A schematic of the west facade. force. The panels are 2 feet by 6 feet and are affixed with stainless steel screws three at a time to aluminum frames. These unitized panel sections connect back to the slab edge through an engineered clipping system of aluminum extrusions. For the most part the metal panels are set 1 foot away from the inner glass wall, but on the west facade this distance increases by as much as 10 to 12 feet where the panels swoop out to animate the building face and form a canopy above the entrance. Electric actuators wired back to a centralized control unit operate the outer wall, and a software program tunes the facade to the season and the sun’s position. Except in a few places where the metal face pulls back to reveal all-glass sections, the building’s inner wall is made up of an off-the-shelf window wall system. Spanning between the floor slabs, the system includes a black- painted spandrel unit that rises 3 1⁄2 feet from the floor, and a 6-foot-high vision unit. The exposed glass areas are curtain walls that were structurally glazed in the field on unitized shop assembled frames. Almost all of the project’s exterior glass is ill; center and bottom: A. Zahner Co.
Viracon VNE1-63, which has a H low-e coated 1⁄4-inch outer lite, 1⁄2-inch air space, and 1⁄4-inch inner lite. An exterior stair tower
features Viracon’s 9⁄16-inch aan; top: John aan; bottom: Morphosis B HS/HS Laminated glass with a B wan I wan cool white interlayer. I Traditional facade systems combine two purposes: functional and aesthetic. According to revious spread:
Tzvetkov, the efficiency of the P and center:Top
26 Metals in Construction Spring 2010 41 Cooper Square 27 28 separating thesepurposesand double wallsystemcomesfrom Metals inConstruction to adouble-heightstudentlounge. stories four rises stair the itself, of and Facing the space. overlook that spaces informal other and rooms, seminar lounges, connect to stair. the Left, above daylight. by lit is space occupied regularly S atrium. central eleven-story building’s the Left “ T impressive 30to35percent. In energy consumptionbyan while atthesametimereducing 10 percent oftheoverallbudget, double wall system down to about was abletokeepthecostof T design team for accuracy checks. T themintoshopdrawings. turned and senttomanufacturers who were outlinedonthecomputer the process. project’s players together early in U process used on T the structure. them difficult to handle from inside and complexgeometriesmade units becausetheirlarge sizes also used to install the curtain wall panels intoplace. crane necessary to pick the metal feet from theslabedge,wasa facade reaches asmuch12 on thewestface,where theouter wall waserected behindit.Only building first,thenthewindow installed from theinsideof faces themetalpanelswere you’re investing.” extra performanceforthemoney as sunshading,you‘re getting functions to the exterior layer, such says. “ of thedoubleskinsystem,”he performance. “ outer wall without worrying about innovative on the design of the T product capable of doing the job. able to choose the most affordable the building the designers were is not responsible for the looks of with each. Because the inner wall isolating the problems associated T eventy-five percent of the building’s the of percent eventy-five his freed the team up to get zvetkov’s understatedwords: hrough thismethodtheteam hese thencamebacktothe nion project brought all of the hat’s pretty good.” On thenorth,east,andwest A 20-foot-wide stair rises through through rises stair 20-foot-wide A he digitally integrated design A social gathering place in in place gathering social A A S lso, ifyoudesignatemore ky bridges cross the atrium atrium the cross bridges ky A curving lattice surrounds surrounds lattice curving A T he wall’s components T hat isthebeauty T S A he Cooper pring 2010 crane was M
This spread: Iwan Baan 30 to gain laboratory academic city’s first the be to expected is school The budget. within system facade the kept process design Above A digitally integrated integrated digitally A LEED
P latinum certification.
and insulate the building in the winter. the in building the insulate and summer the in gain heat reduce panels right Below, atrium. the around organized are left Below, Meeting areas and lounges lounges and areas Meeting The operable stainless steel steel stainless operable The Metals inConstruction S pring 2010
Top: Joseph David; left: Iwan Baan
Iwan Baan “ northwest sideofthebuilding. Above
Andrea Tzvetkov, Morphosis you’re investing.” extra performance for the money sun shading, you’re getting to the exterior layer, such as If you designate more functions An open-air terrace wraps the the wraps terrace open-air An
41 CooperSquare Curtain Wall Architectural Metal Miscellaneous S Construction Manager: Mechanical S Associate Architect: Architect: Owner: L 41 ocation: tructural tructural Syska HenessyGroup, Inc. Goldstein AssociatesConsultingEngineers C OOPER S The CooperUnionfortheAdvancementofScienceandArt 41 CooperSquare, NewYork, NY Morphosis Architects S E ngineers: teel E E ngineers: rector: I ron Fabricatorsand E Q rector: UARE E Gruzen SamtonArchitects rector: W&W Glass John A.Martin&Associates,Inc. IBE ConsultingEngineers F.J. SciameConstrictionCo. FMB Steel FMB Steel , New York, NY , , New York, NY Nanuet, NY E , rectors: Harrison, NJ , Harrison, NJ Post RoadIron Works , , New York, NY New York, NY , Sherman Oaks,CA , New York, NY , Los Angeles,CA , Greenwich, CT ; ,
New York, NY ;
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