Photo © James Ewing
The University Center, The New School Campus designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP has recently opened in New York. The school, which was founded almost 100 years ago in 1919, had outgrown its original Greenwich village home in terms of both classroom space and accommodation for the over 10,000 students now enrolled there. SOM’s design focuses on the faceted central concrete staircases connecting the seven academic floors, which are also visible from the outside, becoming the building’s central feature especially when it is lit up at night. The nine floors of the domitories, on the other hand, are set back, so they can’t be seen from street level.