Parsons V. NYU: Battle of the Renovations

Urban campuses are often a collection of mismatched buildings that are donated or acquired by a college or university over time, and in most cases, beggars can’t be choosers. Many smaller schools don’t even own the buildings they occupy, making it difficult to control their students’ environments in the same way that non-urban campuses who own their own buildings can.

Urban campuses don’t lend themselves easily to originality since it’s hard to forge an identity when you’re literally confined by the walls of neighboring buildings. Nevertheless, both Parsons The New School for Design and New York University recently took up the challenge to inject a sense of identity into a pre-existing architectural space. Because the two spaces function so differently, a comparison of the two spaces might be partial from the start: Parsons renovated was their main lobby, an area that is consistently in use— by the public as well as the school. Meanwhile, the NYU renovation was of a 1890s building occupied solely by the Philosophy Department—and only open to NYU affiliates. Yet when considering that both schools’ renovations attempted to achieve brilliant architectural spaces by employing creative concepts, it becomes clear that only one of them is truly a success.

In 2008, Lyn Rice Architects was commissioned by Parsons to renovate the school’s main lobby at 66 5th Avenue. The architect’s concept for this project was to create an “urban quad” – which tried to emulate a suburban campus quad, in theory, and—in the case of the Parson’s project—in materials as well. The main area that was renovated was seen as a prospective campus “hub”: a meeting point for all things social and academic. It is easy to understand why flow and accessibility are important to this new urban quad, especially between class hours.

In order for bustling academic spaces to be a success, they must meet certain criteria: They must be easily navigated, visually organized and physically uncluttered. In order for these academic areas to be a total functional success they also need to contribute to the learning environment. This can be achieved by creating a well-designed space that supports and inspires the students in their academic pursuits.

The Parsons space is both uncluttered and user-friendly. Simple elements (like the diamond pattern of the concrete floor tiles) are echoed in other places around the quad (like the skylights) and give a coherent flow to the main entry space off of 13th street. The smooth, crisp nature of the variety of materials used——like aluminum, poured concrete, plastic and glass——move the viewer’s eye along and ease the transition from one area of the main space to another. As concrete floor tiles turn into aluminum on the large ramp in the middle of lobby, the similarity in the visual language of the materials is still evident, because both of these elements are consistent in texture; There is no jumping from one space to the other. Even the white walls and large set windows, which look out over 5th Avenue and 13th Street, stay true to this visual vocabulary. A single wall, covered in yellow poplar bark, is the only façade that doesn’t stay consistent with this smooth, visual language. This wall injects a natural presence to the space and brings an element of the suburban campus quad, trees, into this urban space. The mixture of materials adds interest to the space, while staying in a neutral color range of silver, grey and white. There are specific neon accent colors in each office, gallery or lobby of the Parsons’s renovation. Although these colors are eye-piercing, their visual simplicity as a solid color counteracts their visual noise as neon color, thus making them bearable in the design.

The other central idea for the Parsons renovation was less physical and more conceptual: to make an identity for the school and for the students. Both of these were achieved in different ways. Before the renovations, the school’s reputation for cultivating “who’s who” in the design world was not fully realized in their buildings design: Long lines to get into class and old, bland architecture were not cues that signified to an outsider this was a top design school. Lyn Rice Architects focused much of their time creating a space where the schools ideals, values and presence could come through, via a sleek new interior, but would still somehow reflect student’s personal identity and work. The solution to this was movable, changeable elements—like TV screens to display video of student’s work and window frames that contribute to the space by allowing paintings to be hung from them. The architecture of this showcase-like space compliments the student art and design work it displays, without taking away any of their spotlight.

Meanwhile, Steven Holl was commissioned by NYU to renovate their Philosophy department; a six story, Greenwich Village building at 3-5 Washington Place. Since the space was split into separate levels, it was important that—in addition to maintaining a consistency of design detail throughout all floors—one large-scale object visually held the space together. A large staircase meandering up the right side of these six stories does the job of connecting the spaces, physically and visually, and it also engages the viewers at street level. When seen at night, the staircase resonates with light. Holl’s sponge-like, organic shapes, which are cut out of white painted wood that encases the stairwell, create the lightbox effect. Unfortunately, this is the only part of the renovation that speaks with such vibrancy and presence.

In comparison to the Parsons renovation, the new NYU department was barren. Even though the NYU department largely houses offices—save for a few classrooms and a departmental lounge—the lack of people wasn’t the real issue. The actual space felt sad and uninviting. Holl’s plan for these six floors was that they would be a multiuse facility for students and facility. Along this line of thinking, the architects installed large desks in the middle of each floor. These desks had three apparent functions, a filing cabinet, a seating area and a workspace, but no one appeared to be using any of them. These desks were literally collecting dust—and rightfully so—since, in this digitized world, the idea of the filling cabinet has gone the way of the Walkman and a workspace had translated to a desktop.

The lounge was the only floor in the NYU department that looked as if it might have had many people congregating in it at a certain time. The furnishings were sleek and modernist, as the designers chose black leather to compliment the overall black-and-white color scheme found on the rest of the floors. Although these furniture choices seemed apparently design-conscious (in terms of style and comfort), they did not add anything to the room, and their lacquer-like upholstery just accented to the already-boring visual elements.

Both projects were relatively large-scale, more than just one floor or area, and spanned over many floors or departments. But Parsons’ renovations, both aesthetically and functionally, were more of a success than NYU’s. The Philosophy Department fell short of luminous, with floors that, more or less, repeated themselves the plan became monotonous after the 3rd floor. The renovations also didn’t span further than the main areas of these floors: The bathrooms and extra spaces surrounding the main hallways were neglected and felt out of place. The lighting of every space was minimal and dreary and added to the stark, lonely feeling of the black, white and grey color scheme.

For the most part, the new renovations appeared to be well-integrated into all areas of both campus spaces. Parson’s urban quad and the NYU department each had coherent design schemes that were apparent at first glance. In addition, both were modern, minimalist and multiuse renovations. The color scheme for each was a white and neutral color pallet with one accent color per space. And in both designs, the light color scheme created an issue with durability and longevity of the materials: The walls, floors and furniture in the high-traffic areas of both Parsons and NYU were dirty and worn. Resilience of materials is something that should have been considered in both areas, and at Parsons in particular (where the décor is predominantly white), the color scheme could have been more vibrant in order to reflect the creativity of their students.

On the other hand, Lyn Rice Architects’ choice of accent colors might not be so easy on the eyes, but at least this space captures attention.

Lyn Rice Architects accomplished the job of creating an identity for the school while allowing the identity of the students to shine. This consideration for the students reflects well on both the school and design team. Both the Parsons and NYU spaces are functional, but Parsons’s urban quad goes above and beyond physical practicality, and incorporates a space that can be transformed and reinvented based on the current students needs or aspirations.