Project Details
- Project Name
- Grace Farms
- Architect
-
SANAA ,Handel Architects
- Client/Owner
- Grace Farms Foundation
- Project Types
- Community
- Shared by
- Hanley Wood
- Team
-
Kazuyo Sejima, Primary author
Ryue Nishizawa, Primary author
Shohei Yoshida, Architect
Takayuki Hasegawa, Architect
Jack Hogan, Architect
Tommy Haddock, Architect
- Consultants
- Other: Handel Architects
- Project Status
- Built
2017 AIA Institute Honor Award Winner in Architecture
When the commission for Grace Farms was announced, it was the source of some puzzlement: What exactly was it supposed to be? With SANAA’s 80-acre compound in New Canaan, Conn., now open, we have our answer—and the remarkable thing is how mysterious it remains. A parish community center that is also a public recreational facility and a stunning bit of landscape architecture, this project from Japanese duo Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, who worked with New York–based Handel Architects, is hard to pin down, and not just in terms of its program. A glass-enclosed corridor that snakes down a lush hillside, the building is almost a living organism, widening to accommodate internal organs in the form of functional spaces like a library, dining hall, and gymnasium.
The nonprofit Grace Farms Foundation acquired the wooded property, one of the last such undeveloped spots in the area, to preserve it in its pristine natural condition, and the building manages to activate the site without intruding on it, a minimal-impact approach complemented by its locally sourced materials and energy-efficient construction. As nebulous as the program is, the building is grounded in a rather distinct architectural tradition—that of midcentury Modernism, for which this particular corner of Connecticut was once a sort of cradle. Only a short drive from Philip Johnson’s Glass House, and not far from seminal projects by Marcel Breuer and Eliot Noyes, SANAA’s building is a latter-day reflection on the elegant simplicity of the early modern masters.
Project Credits
Project: Grace Farms, New Canaan, Conn.
Client: Grace Farms Foundation
Design Architect: SANAA, Tokyo . Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa, (principals); Shohei Yoshida, Takayuki Hasegawa, Tommy Haddock (project team)
Architect of Record: Handel Architects, New York . Gary Handel, FAIA (managing partner); Frank Fusaro, AIA (partner-in-charge); Rick Kearns, Peter Miller, AIA (project architects); Danielle Chao, Adham el Ghatit, Shujian Jian, Marcos Salcedo, Harshad Pillai, Michael Regan, Ana Untiveros-Ferrel, Amy Wynott (project team)
Owner’s Representative/Project Direction: Paratus Group
Landscape: Olin Construction Manager: Sciame Construction
Structural Engineer: SAPS/Sasaki and Partners; Robert Silman Associates
Civil Engineer: McChord Engineering Associates
Mechanical Engineer/Lighting/Daylighting/Sustainability Engineer/Energy Modeling: BuroHappold
Geotechnical Engineer: Langan Engineering
Geothermal Designer: Alderson Engineering
Building Envelope Consultant: Front
Sustainability Consultant: Transsolar
Wood Consultant: Wood Science Specialists
Concrete Consultant: Reginald Hough Associates
Acoustics Consultant: Nagata Acoustics
Acoustics/AV/IT/Security Consultant: Harvey Marshall Berling Associates
Meadow Consultant: Larry Weaner Landscape Associates
Soils and Wetlands Consultant: Environmental Planning Services
Conservation Planning and Herpetologist: Michael W. Klemens
Elevator Consultant: Van Deusen & Associates
Commissioning: Genesys Engineering
Cost Estimating: Stuart-Lynn Co.
Façade Maintenance: Entek Engineering
Kitchen Planning: Frank N Giampietro Associates
Surveyor: Rocco V. D’Andrea
Testing/Inspections: HAKS Engineers
Graphics: Pentagram
Size: 75,000 square feet (total enclosed area); 80 acres (site)
Cost: $67 million (construction)
To see the rest of ARCHITECT's coverage of the 2017 AIA Institute Honor Awards, click here.
Project Description
FROM MCHAP:
Objectives
We proposed a building that spreads beneath a long, undulating roof, which follows the landscape and floats in the center of the site. Winding and crossing the hills freely, this wood-frame structure, now known as the River, creates many covered outdoor spaces while also forming courtyards. Interior programs under the long roof are wrapped in glass volumes organized according to their character and use. There are five such glass-enclosed volumes hosting a variety of activities and events that are in harmony with Grace Farms Foundation’s initiatives for nature, arts, justice, community and faith. These volumes are a Sanctuary, which also serves as a 700-seat amphitheater-style performance space; a Library with volumes curated around the Foundation’s mission areas and a glass conference room; a Commons dining and living room with a fireplace, 18-foot-long communal tables made of wood from trees preserved on site; an intimate Pavilion where tea services are offered; and a partially submerged Court, a multi-functional recreational and performance space. In addition to the River building, an existing barn was renovated to serve as a warm welcome center and offer spaces for day-to-day programs, with classrooms, art studio, rehearsal room, offices and drop-off food pantry to support the justice program. Grace Farms also offers a community garden, panoramic vistas, ponds, a one-mile walk in the woods, athletic fields and open courtyards.
Context
The private, non-profit Grace Farms Foundation sought to preserve the last undeveloped 80 acres of woodlands, wetlands and meadows in New Canaan, CT, as a gift of open space to the public. The Foundation wanted to create a porous building within this beautiful, rolling landscape that would invite people to experience nature while providing a place to foster community, participate in social justice initiatives, enjoy artworks and cultural presentations and explore faith. The program called for an architectural and landscape design that would be a new model of cultural and community center merged with nature. New Canaan provided a context where Eliot Noyes, Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson and others helped to rethink residential modernism in the U.S. Mies was a direct influence in New Canaan through Johnson. The architectural design for Grace Farms builds in part on Mies's legacy, including his 1928 vision of a skyscraper with curved glass. Although Mies and Johnson were not direct models, they helped set the aspiration for transcendent lightness: of a structure that would float on the landscape while also being full integrated with it. The Foundation’s desire to preserve open space led to the decision to keep approximately 77 of the 80 acres unbuilt. Trees that were cleared for construction were milled on site to construct the furniture for Grace Farms, including 18-foot-long community tables. Fifty-five 500-foot-deep geothermal wells were drilled for heating and cooling. Seventy percent of previously mowed areas have been returned to natural meadows.
Performance
Since opening to the public in October 2015, Grace Farms has functioned as both a peaceful respite and a place of vibrant activity. The River building draws people in to engage with the site’s natural landscape and serves as the springboard for the mission and programs. Within the first six months, approximately 50,000 people visited Grace Farms to participate in architectural tours, community dinners, lectures and discussions, concerts, athletics, and worship services--or to explore the 80-acre site on an individual basis. Grace Farms allows visitors to shape their own experiences, with the River building encouraging a sense of freedom and unstructured time and drawing people out into the landscape. Grace Farms Foundation has selected more than 40 not-for-profit organizations to receive grants of program space at Grace Farms, encouraging social good and collaboration for good across its five initiatives of nature, arts, justice, community, and faith. To date, nearly 1,000 people have engaged with the Justice Initiative to disrupt and eradicate human trafficking, and many have commented on the restorative quality of Grace Farms. Another principal beneficiary of program space is the local, non-denominational Grace Community Church, which uses the River’s Sanctuary on Sundays.