Reinforcing Concrete Design in Architecture / Summer 96 - Page 1

DESIGN CHALLENGE
... integrating a 5-story, 130,000 square foot addition within the historic fabric of Syracuse University.

DESIGN RESPONSE
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson's extraordinary siting and massing solution enabled Syracuse's Maxwell School to triple its size while enhancing the historic qualities of the densely developed campus core. This achievement was only possible with an engineering solution of a reinforced concrete structure carefully integrated with an advanced mechanical system. While conforming to the scale and geometry of John Russell Pope's 1920's campus plan, this design creates an architectural link between two of Pope's Georgian buildings and offers bold new solutions to the demands of a modem academic complex.

    While formulating the new Maxwell School in this sterile age of computer based learning, university officials and the architects were determined to make this large addition encourage personal interaction. A spa designed to provide focus and light while linking diverse highly technical research and instructional environments. In the words of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson's Frank Grauman, "many depression-era public buildings refer to Greek temples in scale and ornamentation, but are very disappointing when that spatial sense is lost in the interior. With this design, we provided a spatial experience more consistent with the promises set up by the exterior."