The Faculty of Architecture building at Cornell University by OMA

In the early 1970s, Rem Koolhaas also studied under Professor Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca. On September 19, 2006, he presented a project for the expansion of his former school (which was introduced to a wider audience yesterday at AAP in Manhattan). On the site of the former parking lot, a building costing 40 million dollars is to be constructed, featuring new studios, a library, exhibition areas, and seminar rooms over a space of 4,000 square meters.
Since 2001, several renowned firms (Steven Holl, Barkow Leibinger) have failed in the competition for the new architecture faculty at Cornell University. Koolhaas was approached this January. His design features a single-story white levitating building that connects two streets of differing heights. A free public space will be created on the ground floor of the northern part of the building. An underground floor will connect to the above-ground level via a staircase hidden in the embankment. Koolhaas's design also addresses the eternal debate of Box or Blob? - “A box is always something isolated, but here we use the box as a mediator. One could say this is a postmodern use of the box.” Construction of the faculty is set to begin next year, with completion planned for 2009. Info>