Diller Scofidio + RenfroA rendering of Columbia University Medical Center’s new medical and graduate education building in Washington Heights.The architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro has designed a 14-story tower of study and social spaces for Columbia University Medical Center’s new medical and graduate education building in Washington Heights.
The design, to be released on Wednesday, is unorthodox for a medical school not only in its verticality and sculptural treatment of exposed interiors but also, according to the architects, in its reflection of a new more collaborative, team-based mode of teaching.
“It’s like a vertical landscape, a vertical living room,” said Elizabeth Diller, one of the firm’s principals. “For us it was a great opportunity to think about an educational building that had a different kind of logic and take advantage of a fantastically small footprint.”
The architecture firm Gensler is the architect of record for the building, working with the DS+R team on technical aspects of the project including construction documents.
Construction — to begin in early 2013 and take about three and a half years — will be supported by a lead gift of $50 million from P. Roy Vagelos, M.D., an alumnus of Columbia’s medical school, and his wife, Diana Vagelos. The gift was announced in September 2010.
The design incorporates an auditorium, event areas, student lounges, cafés and outdoor spaces including a terrace with views of the Hudson River.
The building, at Haven Avenue and 171st Street, is to be the central hub for students pursuing medical and doctoral degrees at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and will also serve Columbia’s three other medical schools (nursing, dental and public health) as well as the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
No comments:
Post a Comment