SVA Offices

School of Visual Arts Administration Building, 23rd Street, NYC
The School of Visual Arts had four key administrative departments that had grown rather haphazardly on the first floor of its main building. Our goal was to completely demolish all the messy old physical conditions that existed -- and then reorganize the departments into more functional relationships. We brought several of the departments together into one large space -- half of the building -- reconceiving the area as a space with a vast, stepped ceiling with lighting embedded in the 'steps'.

The entrance to this major space had been unappetizing, meandering, long and low. Concrete beams and columns throughout the entrance spaces were rather incoherently arranged. To visually organize them, we covered all the beams and columns in curved copper panels and finished it off with a series of curved copper display cabinets for the student artwork. The copper was left with a raw finish so that if there is any dirt or vandalism to the copper surfaces it can be wiped away with a scouring pad.