Modern architecture meets the the Lower East Side of Manhattan with the new academic building at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Advertised as “an innovative learning environment for the exceptional students enrolled today and for those to come,” its undulating, perforated metal skin seems to support at least the idea of those assertions. Just experiencing the building from the street however, leaves much to be desired.
Exterior Design
The structure was designed by Morphosis, a firm out of Los Angeles. Known recently for their public and academic work, they specialize in ultra-modern designs featuring folding planes, metal skins and complex spaces. This building continues that theme with a layered skin of glass and perforated metal panels. Finished cast-in-place concrete serves to support the structure and also break up the metal skin on the front facade.
At street level, the academic building is devoid of any public interface – a small guarded lobby is as far as we were allowed. On the outside, there is an intricate relationship between pedestrians and the building along 3rd Avenue as one can walk around the obliquely angled columns, underneath the perforated skin and even on top of a few formal elements. The scale isn’t uncomfortable, but the materials are fairly harsh and lack human scale. On the back and sides, however, pedestrians are “greeted” with blank concrete walls and an unfinished tail of the perforated metal skin.
Architecture like this can be a challenge for even the most skilled designers and there are multiple, very visible unresolved areas. The most noticeable ones can be found at street level in the space underneath and behind the panelized facade. These mistakes range from rusting structural components left exposed, to incomplete storefront assemblies. After seeing a few of these types of projects, though, mistakes become expected.
While it lacks good quality urban substance, I will say the project does make for some pleasing eye candy and I can only assume that it treats the privileged users with inspiring spaces, optimized for higher learning.