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BARNARD
WEIGHS THREE ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS AS FINALISTS TO DESIGN NEW
MULTI-PURPOSE CAMPUS BUILDING
Barnard
College has narrowed its search to three award-winning architectural
firms in the design selection process for a six-story multi-use
campus building. Conceived as part of Barnard's newly completed
master plan, the building
will knit together a range of academic, research and social
activities and will include a new library, 900-seat event
space, community meeting rooms for student activities and
forums, and food café.
The three finalists -- Machado and Silvetti Associates, Mack
Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, and Weiss/Manfredi Architects
-- \were selected from more than 20 firms that were evaluated
by a committee of trustees, administrators, faculty, alumnae,
and students. Over the summer months, members of the architect-selection
committee will view some of the finalists' buildings. The
finalists will present proposals to the committee in mid-August,
and the winning design will be announced in September.
The building, designated as the Nexus, will replace
the more than 40-year-old Millicent McIntosh Student Center
and is the heart of the master plan that calls for 100,000
square feet of new or renovated space over the coming decade.
In addition to research and academic uses, the Nexus will
provide ample room for student activities and events and for
Barnard's popular public performances, lectures and forums.
Fundraising for the building, estimated to cost $45 million,
is being spearheaded by Barnard trustees and alumnae Jolyne
Caruso-FitzGerald '81 and Cheryl Glicker Milstein '82, with
Myra Cohen Monfort '60. Their gifts and those from trustee
Patricia Nadosy '68 and William Golden, a trustee emeritus,
total nearly $9 million. The College plans to finance the
Nexus through a combination of borrowing and gifts from donors.
Machado and Silvetti Associates, based in Boston, designed
the Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park in Battery Park City. The firm
has completed several campus buildings including residence
halls at Princeton and Rice universities and graduate-student
housing at Harvard. In 1991, the American Academy of Arts
and Letters honored Machado and Silvetti with the First Award
in Architecture, in recognition of their outstanding achievements
in urban design.
Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, based in Atlanta, has
won numerous American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards
for its buildings, which range from libraries to art galleries
to private residences. The firm's past projects include dormitories
at Tulane and Emory universities, a campus center for Wellesley
College, and the Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture
at Ohio State University.
Weiss/Manfredi Architects won the AIA New York 2002 Design
Award for its innovative new-media library at P.S. 42 in Queens.
The firm designed Smith College's new campus center and Trinity
College's performing arts center, as well as renovations to
Columbia University's School of Business.
Barnard, through the leadership of President Judith Shapiro,
engaged Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates to draw up the campus
master plan, the first since Barnard's move to northern Manhattan
100 years ago. The plan, completed in the final months of
2002, will transform the 4 1/2 acre campus over the coming
decade, providing new or renovated space for teaching and
research and cultural and social activities while maintaining
the campus green space as an urban oasis.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-2037,
strimel@barnard.edu
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