College of Architecture, Cornell University

The site for the new Department of Architecture building, Milstein Hall, is located at the northeast corner of the Arts Quad, north of the Fall Creek Gorge Bridge, a main thoroughfare for pedestrian traffic onto campus. The new Milstein Hall offers a campus passage at its ground plane which is open to all and makes a new connection to the existing architecture school building, Sibley Hall. Students traveling through the Arts Quad can encounter exhibits of ongoing work in the school, see student projects in the shop, or attend an architecture lecture which is announced along the passage. The shop and lecture hall open directly to the new campus passage, facilitating the “social condenser” aspect of this passage.

The upper levels of the new Architecture School provide a special view connection to the gorge, the campus, and the distant views of Lake Cayuga. This view connects to the Finger Lakes Region’s amazing topography.