John A. Paulson Center | New York, New York, USA | 2023

Architects: Davis Brody Bond—a Page Company / Kieran Timberlake, LLP.
Client: New York University
Landscape Architects: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Structural Engineers: Severud Associates
General Contractor: Turner Construction Company
Client: New York University
Photographers: Connie Zhou and James Ewing

The LEED Gold John A. Paulson Center is a 735,000 sq. ft. mixed-use academic building that sets a new paradigm for multi-use university facilities. The new building embodies the vibrancy and character of New York University while offering new ways to engage, learn, work, play, and live.

Designed to optimize interactions between diverse student groups and academic disciplines, the building includes classrooms; performing arts theaters, teaching, rehearsal, and practice rooms; athletic facilities for varsity sports and recreation; and housing for students and faculty. Each of these spaces is organized into unique “neighborhoods,” all of which are connected by an expansive Commons that provides collaborative gathering spaces. The Paulson Center's design takes advantage of its 360-degree relationship with the neighborhood by placing hallway circulation along its transparent perimeter and classroom and instructional spaces towards the center of the building. This reversal of conventional building organization provides faculty and students with one-of-a-kind city views while also giving outside observers a sense of the building's activity. This distinct layout, along with the building's prominent stairways, creates a sense of openness and connection by encouraging the casual encounters and intellectual exchanges that are at the center of the NYU experience. Outside, the design continues to develop connections by creating a new pedestrian “greenway” that links two major thoroughfares along the building's west side.

Angled curtain wall panels punctuate the exterior of the building, shifting light and shadow, creating a distinct and textured façade. The orientation of these wedges has been tailored to the building's unique solar exposure, allowing for self-shading of direct low sun angles, while maintaining an abundance of natural light. The wedges frame distinctive city views and create window benches in the student housing towers. Designed in support of NYU's Climate Action Plan for carbon neutrality by 2040, the building incorporates sustainable design features to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and the amount of waste generated during construction and everyday use. The building is connected to NYU's existing Co-Gen plant that simultaneously produces electricity, heat, and chilled water, substantially reducing the number of resources used, as well as greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants.

By bringing together an eclectic mix of spaces into a single building designed to encourage connections and community engagement, the Paulson Center builds a multidisciplinary community that will define the University's creative and academic diversity. The NYU community embraced the building immediately at the start of the Spring 2023 semester. University leadership is proud of a new flagship building that will set standards in engagement and sustainability for further campus development.