by Amy S. Choi

The old and the new don't always mix - unless they have to.

And they do - quite successfully - in the expansion and redevelopment of the campus of the Fashion Institute of Technology, a college of the State University of New York, located between 27th and 28th streets and Seventh and Eighth avenues in Manhattan's garment and fashion district.

The school originally opened in 1956, and its last construction project was completed in 1975. As the student body grew, FIT administrators knew by 1994 that they were facing a 258,000-sq.-ft. space shortfall and two underutilized courtyards.

With the cost to acquire land and properties prohibitive in Manhattan, the college hired Kevin Hom + Andrew Goldman Architects P.C., specialists in designing educational facilities, to master plan new additions to the cramped campus.

Designing for a Design Campus

"Here's a campus that has to compete with the city around it," said Andrew Goldman, the firm's vice president. "We needed to locate and provide campus amenities that didn't exist before and create grand spaces but not make them feel totally alien to the existing strong campus buildings that are here."

The architects were careful to integrate the new developments aesthetically with the existing facilities, but they still wanted to punch it up a bit. For both the interior and exterior of the new spaces, Hom + Goldman used ground-face block, an upscale concrete block that has the polish of terrazzo.

The ground-face block is the same color as the original limestone wrapping on the campus, so "architecturally the space doesn't seem inappropriate in any way," Goldman said. The architects did add a red and charcoal stripe to the exterior to provide a "special luster," he added.

"Over the years, there were additions but there wasn't an attempt to unify the campus," said Goldman. "We're making the new additions destinations but want them aesthetically to enter into the campus."

With that in mind, Hom + Goldman completed a master plan, which was submitted to the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. DASNY, a state agency, helps manage the construction and arranged the financing.

Overall, the 10-year, two-phase development plan will cost $150 million and add 300,000 sq. ft. of new space, including a great hall, exhibition space, conference center and dining hall. In addition, 400,000 sq. ft. of space will be renovated and a campus mall created.

Phase one of the plan, the addition of two buildings on two underutilized sunken courtyards on the north side of the campus and the creation of a pedestrian walkway, will just exceed $50 million. The two courtyards stretch along 28th Street side of the campus.

The approximately $20 million for the two new buildings, which broke ground in August of last year, have been financed with 50 percent coming from the state of New York, 25 percent from New York City and 25 percent from private capital.

Phase two of the master plan is currently in the development stage.

Tight Spaces and Missing Blueprints

"One challenge of a site like this is that you are surrounded by buildings and don't have clear access to it," said Hans Gesell, a project manager at Wayman C. Wing Consulting Engineers, the development's structural engineer. "(The project) could have been practically impossible, but wasn't."

Harvey Spector, vice president of finance and operations at FIT, said construction had to take place while 10,000 students attended classes. "FIT is in use six days a week, so managing the noise, the dust, controlling the access is difficult," he added. "The surprise is that it's gone so smoothly."

Nine months into the construction, the development team at FIT had a couple of headaches pop up. For example, in order not to disturb the foundation of the surrounding buildings, engineers had to delve deep into bedrock. Because of the height of the water table in New York City, they had to go through a dewatering process, all of which was expected.

The contractors were surprised, however, to find that blueprints that offered structural elements of the older buildings either no longer existed or were not completely accurate. Surprises included 6-in. variants in the floor slabs, a challenge for developments that have three of four sides touching existing buildings.

"I had connected some major new roofbeams to a column that turned out not to be there (in the West Courtyard)," Gesell said. "The column stopped, skipped one floor and started at the next. So we supplied the missing column ourselves."

While installing a new elevator pit in the East Courtyard, the construction team hit a foundation 2 ft. higher than Gesell had expected it to be. So, the team chopped out some of the foundation. Additionally, some of the limestone panels on the existing structures were not supported satisfactorily.

"In every project we have a change-order contingency," said George Jefremow, project manager at URS Corp., the project's construction manager. "Some unexpected things have occurred, but we're still within our contingency limit."

Teamwork

The surprises would have been much more difficult for a team that was less skilled at working together.

New York State's Wicks Law requires that public projects of this size have a minimum of four contractors. "There are five contractors, which should have made it a horror show," Goldman said. "But the nature of the team is great, and they've been tremendously flexible. URS has been amazing as a construction manager holding them together - it really is a testament to George (Jeffremow)."

Jefremow said coordinating the five contractors was the toughest aspect of the project. "(Under Wicks) URS is in essence made into a GC without the power of holding the contracts," he added. "So our biggest challenge was initiating and maintaining cooperation between the primes."

Very specific supplemental general agreements and coordination drawings helped the process. "It works out 90 percent of the time," said Jefremow, who has previously completed two other DASNY projects.

"Hans (Gesell) goes to the site whenever he's called and is a very flexible engineer," Goldman said. "He's very creative and will work with you. They're not all that way."

Gesell said that on every job, "you start seeing shadows everywhere and worry that it's never going to come to a happy conclusion. But I actually enjoyed visiting this site."

The Next Step

The two new buildings of phase one should be complete by February, at which point the college hopes to get started on the 27th Street Streetscape, which will create a pedestrian walkway.

The streetscape, however, is facing its own set of troubles. Some neighbors on the block where the college owns and operates eight buildings and rents space in several others are not happy with the plan, said FIT's Spector. The plan is currently in the approval process with various city agencies, but the neighbors are suing the college to prevent the development.

Integrating the college's needs with those of the surrounding community remains a problem for the project, but builders and educators are optimistic.

"This is one of the better projects I've ever been on," Jefremow said. "The students are enthusiastic and appreciative, the FIT staff has been more help than I could have believed and I have good contractors. Sometimes people say city and state agencies are impediments, but DASNY has been a fabulous client to work for."