This 32,000sf renovation will play host to two schools with distinct cultures and operations. Primary objectives for the new space are to support opportunities for mutual engagement, collaboration and the sharing of resources. It is also a priority for this project to explore new concepts for the organization of departmental space. The design proposes new typologies of working environments for NSPE. Private offices are organized on the interior of each floor with direct access to open areas around the perimeter that are reserved for shared workspaces, collaborative group work and informal social spaces. Flexibility is built into the open areas, which may be rearranged over time with changes in use. A strong organizational concept characterizes each floor while distinctive neighborhoods with distinguishing architectural characteristics support a diverse range of NSPE activity from formal presentations to ad-hoc production.

Central to the project is also the need to satisfy the complex programmatic requirements of each school while providing a unifying character and identity for NSPE. To counteract the density of program, the ceiling ties in the entire space through a pattern of openings that defines areas where higher, open ceilings were possible and that allows for required access to the mechanical systems.

This study looked at over 350,000 gross square feet of building stock currently occupied by Parsons students, faculty, and administration. Marble Fairbanks examined the existing space usage in the form of building models and metrics culled from the programming of previous semesters, faculty office designations, projected growth calculations, and many other data sources. Focus groups targeting specific topics including classroom organization, school-based hubs, faculty work spaces, and the consolidation of the shop spaces into a communal “Making Center” were held to solicit the input of the various stakeholders in the project. The existing buildings were also examined to determine their “highest and best uses” in their current configurations. Finally, these studies led to a proposed distribution of program across Parson’s existing building stock and scenarios for phased implementation of two specific floors.

Included in the project are spaces for the Journalism Library, the offices of the Columbia Journalism Review, assorted faculty and administrative offices, and classroom space. Central to the proposal is the introduction of several new spaces to serve as a social and intellectual center for the School: a multipurpose social hub for student-faculty interaction as well as larger meetings with visitors to the school, and a more informal student lounge space and cafe.

The social hub accommodates a diverse range of programs: study space for students in between classes, meeting space for students and faculty, informal presentation space for visitors from the journalism industry, and other such communal event spaces for the Journalism School. The cafe is intended to be a louder, more informal space for the School’s students, complete with plasma screens and LED signage that will broadcast the news to patrons. Its site at the formerly outdoor space between Journalism and Furnald allows it to engage the campus environment while also remaining within the School of Journalism. A transparent glass structure is proposed to give the School a more active presence on its entry plaza.

During the course of the study, we conducted extensive focus group meetings with each separate department and constituency within the school. Key issues addressed included current and projected uses of the building, anticipated changes to the curriculum and subsequent teaching methodologies in the school, and questions as to the nature of digital technology in journalism education and what role architecture can play in incorporating new technologies into the school’s curriculum.

A priority for the school was to provide as much flexibility as possible into future planning, since the school’s spatial needs would depend both on securing funding from donors and on changes to the curriculum that were being developed concurrent to the planning study. The study was structured to provide a series of planning scenarios that allow the school to move forward with renovations and development in a truly flexible way. These scenarios take into account short-term and long-term needs in the school, as well as significant alternate adjacencies for major programs within the school. The Toni Stabile Student Center was the first project developed from this Planning Study.

The design consists of four walls defining the space of the slide library and lit by the skylight above. The east wall is made up of 435 sandwiched layers of 1″ thick ultralight (lightweight mdf). Occasional viewing portals are formed by carved layers on opposite dies of the wall where two 1/2″ thick glass panels are inserted. The middle of the east wall curves into the space to capture light in the hall outside from a skylight above. The edges of the glass panels refract and glow from natural light. The north, south and west walls are patterned with 1/4″ perforated lines outlining the actual tooling paths for each of the layers of the east wall – these lines are illuminated by the light of the skylight in the slide library. As part of the rigor to digitally draw, fabricate and manage the entire project, every component of the design was milled regardless of its complexity to enable the walls to be assembled like furniture.