CORNELL UNIVERSITY RHODES | Ithaca, New York | 2017
Architects: LEVENBETTS
Client: Cornell University
General Contractor: Andrew Mancini Associates
The project for Rhodes Hall encompasses two renovated floors for the University’s School of Engineering: the Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL) on the Fourth Floor and the Department of Operations Research and Information Engineering (ORIE) on the Fifth Floor. Both spaces reset the relationship between university learning space and the larger communities of the academic building through transparency and a variety of open collaborative spaces. As a result, the renovated spaces critique the notions of discrete generic workspace in a learning facility and recast learning space as open and participatory. The new spaces also employ smart classroom and distance learning for academic colleagues to communicate with counterparts around the world and the new New York Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island.
In this new climate for collaborative academic learning space, the design not only resets the relationship between programmed research space and collaborative work space but also reinforces the idea that learning occurs in an atmosphere that is conscious of interrelationships and contexts. The design of the new spaces provides a multiplicity of new types of learning scenarios and space types, invites visibility into the new spaces from the existing building and celebrates views out from the new spaces to the campus and natural environment. Spaces that were previously dark or carved up into smaller rooms are now large, open, filled with the changing light of the day and provide new academic opportunities.
Fourth Floor CSL Offices, Hardware Lab + Meeting Rooms
As a new paradigm for vertical and collaborative learning, the CSL space on the fourth floor takes off from its Silicon Valley (and Alley) predecessors by opening up the academic building to new ways of working that engage hands on prototyping, traditional computer focused research and a range of non-traditional, non-dedicated desk oriented learning scenarios. Students and faculty work in planned and impromptu groups in the space using individual and group soft seating environments, co-working modular table configurations, small group smart meeting spaces and an interactive long distance conference space.
Fifth Floor Classroom
Located in the center of the floor plate, this Distance Learning Classroom provides an open and light filled environment and creates a direct connection to the corridor and surrounding department offices and rooms. The transparency of the walls creates a more communal and active environment within the overall experience of the building and its Departments.