![The east fa?ade of the new Diana Center stretches along Broadway and gives Barnard the street presence that it has been lacking for nearly 40 years. The fa?ade incorporates terra-cotta-colored glass shadow boxes, panels with a graduated vertical frit, and panels of vision glass, giving an indication of the programs happening within: classrooms, offices, a black-box theater, and event space. But it is the series of four slipped atria (containing a caf?, a dining hall, a reading room, and a gallery) that are the building's defining gesture. "It's a really transformative building for the campus," says Barnard College president Debora Spar. "Our challenge now is to bring the rest of campus up the level of the Diana [Center]."](https://cdnassets.hw.net/dims4/GG/9ce4282/2147483647/thumbnail/180x125%3E/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdnassets.hw.net%2F66%2F86%2F9922161d4ab9a38f6f9d759ae68d%2F0e143271-b786-4b47-9bec-3718c95578c4.jpg)
Project Details
- Project Name
- The Diana Center, New York
- Location
-
New York ,NY ,United States
- Client/Owner
- Lisa Gamsu, Barnard College
- Project Types
- Cultural
- Size
- 98,000 sq. feet
- Shared by
- Hanley Wood
- Consultants
-
Electrical Engineer: Jaros, Baum & Bolles,null: Jaros, Baum & Bolles,Plumbing Engineer: Jaros, Baum & Bolles,Jaros, Baum & Bolles,Structural Engineer: Severud Associates,Civil Engineer: Langan Engineering and Environmental Services,Construction Manager: Bovis Lend Lease,General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease,Landscape Architect: HM White SA,Lighting Designer: Brandston Partnership,R.A. Heintges Architects Consultants,Cerami & Associates with TM Technology Partners,Ricca Newmark Design,Jeanne Giordano,AMIS,Viridian Energy & Environmental,Fisher Dachs Associates,Jaff eHolden Acoustics
- Project Status
- Built
- Cost
- $57,000,000
Project Description
The Diana Center, designed by New York–based Weiss/Manfredi for Barnard College, looks simple: a five-story glass prism served straight-up. A closer reading, however, reveals a narrative of complexity. The façade is paneled in glass, but not in a display of transparency for transparency’s sake: some panels have a graduated frit; others are shadow boxes, with space between a translucent glass outer layer and a second opaque inner layer. The functions inside the building establish whether the panels will be opaque, transparent, or something in between. A swath of transparent glass rises diagonally up the Broadway façade, revealing a stepped, four-story atrium full of activity. The architects have created a gesammtkunstwerk, a design addressing urbanism, architecture, landscape, and social life. And that design addresses both the big picture and the small: the hazy quality of the shadow box façade panels is echoed in translucent resin tabletops.
Read the full article: http://www.architectmagazine.com/education-projects/diana-center.aspx
