The Diana Center is a relatively small campus made up of architecturally-varied buildings, located on Broadway in Morningside Heights. The college was relatively cut-off from the surrounding neighborhood, so Weiss/Manfredi were brought in to design a multi-use arts center that unifies the campus and creates an innovative center for campus life.
The new 98,000 square-foot campus building includes multiple arts programs like architecture and painting studios, a 500-seat performance space, and a black box theater. The center also features a cafe and a reading room in addition to classrooms and exhibition galleries.
The seven-story building also features a multitude of green building strategies — enough to earn the project LEED Silver certification. Most notably, the roof is partially covered in green lawn, and the previously-paved plaza surrounding the building has been converted to landscaped terraces.
Low-flow water fixtures are featured throughout the building, and the climate is controlled by an energy-efficient HVAC system with heat exchangers and radiant floor heating. Automatic lighting controls dim the CFL lights during the day, when light streams in through the optimized brick colored curtain wall exterior. Eco friendly materials like low- or no-VOC paints and furniture were used, and all the interior materials are recycled or fully recyclable and were regionally-sourced whenever possible.
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Barnard College, one of the prestigious ‘Seven Sisters’ schools on the East Coast, made a bold eco statement this last year with its newest arts center located on Broadway Ave in Manhattan. Named after a former student who donated 1/3 of the cost of the
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The new multi-use arts center for Barnard College is located on Broadway in Morningside Heights.
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The project was designed to be a vibrant new center for the school. It also includes a host of green building strategies.
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The building has a partial green roof, and much of the pavement around the building was transformed into landscaped terraces.
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Weiss/Manfredi are responsible for the design of the 98,000 square-foot mixed-use campus building.
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The new 98,000 square-foot campus building includes multiple arts programs like architecture and painting studios, a 500-seat performance space, and a black box theater. The center also features a cafe and a reading room in addition to classrooms and exhibition galleries.
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A double-story atria and a staircase of windows on the exterior of the building help open up the interior to natural daylight.
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A staircase carves out a place for itself as it rises up through the building — it even cantilevers out over the street.
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An abundance of natural light and bright spaces make this a dynamic, attractive and inspiring building to study in.
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The Diana Center and Weiss/Manfredi are the winners of two AIA awards and a Progressive Architecture Award since the building’s opening in February 2010.
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The Diana Center includes a number of green building strategies that make it eligible for LEED Silver certification, which it is currently pursuing.
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Besides the green roof and landscaping, the Diana Center includes daylighting, natural ventilation, an energy-efficient HVAC system, low-flow water fixtures, automatic lighting control and eco-friendly building materials.
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Landscaping and views were given considerable weight in the design of the Diana Center.
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The exterior is clad in a curtain wall made of colored brick-red glass and frit glass to provide shading and natural daylight without overheating.
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The slice of green roof features a number of different plant types and provides extra space for students to sit outdoors.
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A large part of the interior is cut away to move light through the building.
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There are seven stories of multi-use programs in the Diana Center.
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