Perkins+Will has designed the new 367,000-sf home for Gateway Community College, the leading community college in Connecticut. Spanning two city blocks in downtown New Haven, the $198-million project will create a meaningful identity for the College and enhance the surrounding urban neighborhood.
The state’s first public building designed to be gold-certified in LEED and the largest one-time funded state development in Connecticut history, this entirely new campus relocates Gateway Community College to downtown New Haven and consolidates the school’s two existing campuses to serve more than 11,000 students.
Opening to students on September 4, 2012, the facility is an example of how thoughtful architecture can engage the city and contribute to significant urban revitalization.
Design highlights of the Gateway building are a light-filled multi-story atrium, a state-of-the-art Library and Learning Commons and spacious entry lobbies that connect the college to the city. The building also features classrooms for Gateway’s humanities, business, engineering, nursing/allied health, math/science and culinary arts programs.
Other features include a Community Center that will serve as a large public meeting space for lectures, events and group activities with a capacity for more than 300 people, faculty offices, student service areas and a 600-car parking garage. Perkins+Will located the more public elements of Gateway’s program at street level, with the cafeteria, bookstore, culinary arts program and art exhibition space all visible through storefront-style windows.
Perkins+Will’s design is planned around a multi-story atrium that connects the second, third and fourth levels of the building, and bridges over George Street to link the north and south buildings. The atrium serves as an interior, three-dimensional “street” that connects the main entry to the fourth floor, bringing daylight into the middle of the building and providing clear, intuitive access to all of the major spaces. Configured as a series of terraces linked by stairs and stadium-style seating, the atrium will become the primary gathering space for students and a link between academic spaces and faculty offices. Along the north side is a Learning Wall, a four-story, articulated surface that features inspirational messaging and is patterned with windows that bring natural light into interior classrooms. The bridge features a LED art installation by the art collective Electroland, with portraits that showcase the personalities that make the College unique.
The First Niagara Library and Learning Center anchors the southern end of the building and is defined by a curving, multi-story glass curtain wall that creates a dramatic expression when illuminated at night. The two-story space links a quiet lower floor, comprised of reading spaces and stacks for half of the library’s 50,000 books, with a more active upper level with spaces and seating for group-based learning. It will also feature the latest in interactive computer technology to help students gather information, analyze data and build knowledge.
Perkins+Will’s design for Gateway also features one main lobby and two supporting lobbies, which are all double-height with floor-to-ceiling windows, durable terrazzo floors, wood paneling and specialty lighting fixtures. The main lobby provides clear access from the Community Center and garage, as well as access to the elevators, escalator and stairs. Located at the intersection of Church and George Streets, the main lobby marks the southern corner of New Haven’s eighth square, which is part of the city’s historic “Nine Squares” layout and one of the earliest and most influential urban plans in America. +
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts
The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.
| Mar 11, 2011
Research facility added to Texas Medical Center
Situated on the Texas Medical Center’s North Campus in Houston, the new Methodist Hospital Research Institute is a 12-story, 440,000-sf facility dedicated to translational research. Designed by New York City-based Kohn Pedersen Fox, with healthcare, science, and technology firm WHR Architects, Houston, the building has open, flexible labs, offices, and amenities for use by 90 principal investigators and 800 post-doc trainees and staff.
| Mar 11, 2011
Blockbuster remodel transforms Omaha video store into a bank
A former Hollywood Video store in Omaha, Neb., was renovated and repurposed as the SAC Federal Credit Union, Ames Branch. Architects at Leo A Daly transformed the outdated 5,000-sf retail space into a modern facility by wrapping the exterior in poplar siding and adding a new glass storefront that floods the interior with natural light.
| Mar 11, 2011
Historic McKim Mead White facility restored at Columbia University
Faculty House, a 1923 McKim Mead White building on Columbia University’s East Campus, could no longer support the school’s needs, so the historic 38,000-sf building was transformed into a modern faculty dining room, graduate student meeting center, and event space for visiting lecturers, large banquets, and alumni organizations.
| Mar 11, 2011
Mixed-income retirement community in Maryland based on holistic care
The Green House Residences at Stadium Place in Waverly, Md., is a five-story, 40,600-sf, mixed-income retirement community based on a holistic continuum of care concept developed by Dr. Bill Thomas. Each of the four residential floors houses a self-contained home for 12 residents that includes 12 bedrooms/baths organized around a common living/social area called the “hearth,” which includes a kitchen, living room with fireplace, and dining area.
| Mar 11, 2011
Oregon childhood center designed at child-friendly scale
Design of the Early Childhood Center at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore., focused on a achieving a child-friendly scale and providing outdoor learning environments.
| Mar 11, 2011
Guests can check out hotel’s urban loft design, music selection
MODO, Advaya Hospitality’s affordable new lifestyle hotel brand, will have an urban Bauhaus loft design and target design-, music-, and tech-savvy guest who will have access to thousands of tracks in vinyl, CD, and MP3 formats through a partnership with Downtown Music. Guest can create their own playlists, and each guest room will feature iPod docks and large flat-screen TVs.
| Mar 11, 2011
Construction of helicopter hangars in South Carolina gets off the ground
Construction is under way on a $26 million aviation support facility for South Carolina National Guard helicopters. Hendrick Construction, the project’s Charlotte, N.C.-based GC, is building the 111,000-sf Donaldson Hangar facility on the 30-acre South Carolina Technology & Aviation Center, Greenville.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 11, 2011
Chicago office building will serve tenants and historic church
The Alter Group is partnering with White Oak Realty Partners to develop a 490,000-sf high-performance office building in Chicago’s West Loop. The tower will be located on land owned by Old St. Patrick’s Church (a neighborhood landmark that survived the Chicago Fire of 1871) that’s currently being used as a parking lot.
