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Best of 2006 Awards
The Warehouse at Syracuse University
BEST OF 2006: Higher Education
 Syracuse University completed a project in April that the Best of 2006 awards jury called “brilliant,” “elegant” and “refreshing” – recognizing it for solving a space problem, contributing to the revitalization of downtown Syracuse, N.Y., and offering inspiration to the university’s art and architecture students.
The $9 million renovation of the former Dunk & Bright furniture warehouse building, now known simply as the Warehouse, gives the students a view of how a structure comes together by leaving visible the beams, joists, interior and exterior columns, vents, mechanical systems, floor slabs, and other features. The exposed features also offer a contrast between older and newer building techniques.
“They did it in a year and they did it for not much money,” one juror said. “It was a very economical, very refreshing, very clever building.”
The university embarked on the fast tracked project to transform the 1920’sera building into a new academic space in spring 2005, driven largely by the need for a temporary home for the School of Architecture, whose home on the main campus is undergoing its own renovation.
The new facility is also the permanent home for several arts programs and the Goldring Arts Journalism Program in the university’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
The seven-story, 145,000-sq.-ft. building in downtown Syracuse’s Armory Square neighborhood had no notable structural embellishments. The design ripped open the formerly windowless exterior and replaced large swaths with a new curtain wall that brings daylight into five stories of the building.
The openings also provide a visual connection between the Warehouse and the main campus, about a mile away. The Warehouse job added a 125-seat lecture hall, reading room, café, offices, classrooms, studio space, and climate controlled storage for the university library.
It also provides art gallery spaces for students and the community at large, speaking to another important aim of the overall project – the university’s goal to improve ties between the institution and the surrounding city.
Crews also installed new mechanical equipment, electric and plumbing systems, and elevators, parts of which were left exposed.
The blending of old and new required a great degree of precision in design and construction, which the university addressed by selecting a Syracuse firm whose affiliates, VIP Architectural Associates and VIP Structures, handled design and construction roles. Gluckman Mayner Architects of New York was the design architect.
Although the university took a fast, inexpensive path to complete the project in a year, the panel agreed that it was still done right.
“The innovation was the whole idea of taking a warehouse and doing a quick and dirty but elegant renovation and putting an architectural school in there,” said another judge. “I think it’s just a brilliant, refreshing solution.”
Key Players
Owner: Syracuse University
Design Architects: Gluckman Mayner Architects
Architect of Record: VIP Architectural Associates
Construction Manager: VIP Structures
M-E-P, Fire Protection Engineer: Sack and Associates
Structural Engineer: John P. Stopen Engineering Partnership
Civil Engineer: Environmental Design and Research |
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