The 1000 square foot addition is situated between two MicKim, Mead & White buildings. It complements a 9000 square foot renovation within the Graduate School of Journalism. The renovated space is dedicated to faculty and student use while the addition opens onto a terrace and accommodates both a cafe and open space.

Representatives from the university requested that the designers “disappear” the addition into the rest of the campus. The end result is a largely glass facade that blurrs the line between indoors and out. By working with fabricators and mechanical engineers, an enormous “double-hung window” opens up the space to the outside. At about 19 feet long and 9 feet hight and 25,000 pounds, the facade takes 5 minutes to open. The open facade allows people to pass in and out of the space more feely when weather permits.

The perforated, corrugated canopy is based off of observations of solar patterns studied on various days of the year, which informed the designers’ understanding of the site’s environmental conditions. The sun’s movements were recorded and each panel was assigned a maximum allowable percentage of perforation that would satisfy the goal of reducing solar heat by 80% in the space.

Old meets new in the café addition, where the space lets out onto Columbia’s beautiful campus. The minimal steel and glass structure, assembled from materials sourced from across three continents, fastens delicately to the historic existing buildings. This juxtaposition seeks to highlight the tradition of excellence in education at Columbia while striving for innovation in the realm of journalism.