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Pratt Institute Higgins Hall - Oculus AIA Award

 

Article from Oculus AIA Award - Summer 2007
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Architecture HONOR

Architect: Steven Holl Architects
Project: Higgins Hall Center Section, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY
Client: Pratt Institute

Higgins Hall, an 1868 building in three sections that houses the Pratt Institute School of Architecture, suffered a fire in 1996. At the time, Rogers Marvel Architects was in the process of renovating the building, and continued to do so on the damaged north and south wings. The fire virtually devastated the center wing, but presented an opportunity to completely redesign and contemporize the space.

The new center section is a 22,000-square-foot urban insertion that joins the two adjacent historic landmarked buildings, forming an "H". The section houses a lobby gallery, studios, an auditorium, a digital resource center, a review room, workshops, and a gallery terrace. Six precast concrete columns support the glass center and the thick steel beams and columns form stone like bones. Structural glass with translucent white insulation forms a thick skin that glows at night.

The floor plates of the north and south wings do not align. They meet at the center in a new glass section to create what the architects call a "dissonant zone" that marks the new entry to the school. The misalignment varies increasingly as it moves vertically: on the first floors the misalignment is ‡ inch, or the thickness of a finger, and it increases incrementally until it is 6 feet, 7 inches on the fourth floor. A two-throated skylight marks the top of this center wing, bringing southern and northern light into the building.

Salvaged from the fire, red-brick from the building's past has been recycled into a slumped brick-and-concrete base forming an entranceway for a new generation of architects.

"As we studied the adjoining buildings, we discovered the floors are misaligned by a series of dimensions that relate directly to the dimensions of the human body. This became the generating idea for the project. Now that the three buildings are seamlessly connected at all levels, it is hard to see that the process was really about exploring the possibilities hidden within what first seemed to be irreconcilable differences."
Tim Bade, Architect

"The spaces and the whole arrangement are very successful and are very good examples of a kind of new architecture that is sensible. It responds to needs, responds to a site, and makes the most out of the means available."
Jury

Steven Hall Architects Team: Steven Holl, AIA (Design Architect), Tim Bade (Project Architect), Makram elKadi (Assistant Project Architect), Martin Cox, Annette Goderbauer, Erik Langdalen
Associate Architect: Rogers Marvel Architects
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates, P.C.
Mechanical Engineer: Owe Arup & Partners
Curtain Wall Consultant: R.A. Heintges & Associates
Lighting Consultant: Arc Light Design
Construction Manager: Sciame