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The new grasses, perennials, trees, and bushes were chosen for hardiness, sustainability, and textural and color variation, with a focus on native species. The existing art deco steel railings were restored, many of the original rail tracks were incorporated into the landscape, and concrete pathways, lighting, and seating were installed.

A key feature of the design is the unitized paving system, built from linear concrete planks with open joints, specially tapered edges, and seams that permit intermingling of plants with harder materials.

Mayne in Manhattan

A large deconstructivist-modern building by Thom Mayne and his firm, Morphosis, stands on the campus of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Lower Manhattan. Designed with associate architect Gruzen Samton LLP (now part of IBI Group), 41 Cooper Square is intended to encourage contact among the school's engineering, humanities, art, and architecture programs.

Occupying a full city block, the nine-story, 175,000-square-foot (16,300-square-meter) building contains laboratories, classrooms, and studios organized around a full-height, skylit central atrium.

A wide grand stair wrapped in an undulating lattice rises four stories within the atrium, and bridges cross it at the upper levels. Skip-stop elevators encourage use of the stairs and bridges, with secondary elevators serving each floor for accessibility and freight moving.

The project incorporates numerous sustainable features and is currently pending LEED certification, with a Platinum rating likely. An operable, semitransparent skin of perforated stainless steel panels wraps the glazed envelope, allowing control of solar gain and daylighting, and presenting a sculptured face to the city. Other "green" features include a planted roof, radiant heating and cooling ceiling panels, a rainwater collection system, and a cogeneration plant to convert excess heat into electrical energy.

School in East Harlem

For the East Harlem School, an independent nonprofit middle school in East Harlem, Manhattan, that recruits students from low-income families, Peter Gluck and Partners designed a light-filled building with a patterned facade, making a bold yet welcoming and respectful statement to the neighborhood.

Cost minimization was a key concern in the design of the five-story, 27,800-square-foot (2,580-square-meter) building. A straightforward exterior wall framing system with punched openings is coupled with a high-quality panelized facade system in black, white, and shades of gray, with varying degrees of reflectivity.

To maximize usable space in the building, the circulation is constrained to a tight core. The use of prefabricated concrete plank floors lowered construction costs while also providing the advantage of high 11- and 13-foot (3.4- and 4.0-meter) clear ceiling heights.

The building operates at 17 percent below the average energy consumption of buildings as defined by the EPA Energy Star Target Finder, thanks to a highly insulated building envelope, high-albedo roof membrane, zoned mechanical system, and occupancy sensors.

In an integrated project delivery process, Peter Gluck and Partners and its construction management arm, ARCS Construction Services, delivered the project at $9.36 million, or $337 per square foot ($3,620 per square meter), well below the average cost for New York City public schools, which is $440 to $600 per square foot ($4,730 to $6,450 per square meter), according to the firm.

House on Fishers Island

Thomas Phifer and Partners designed a 4,600-square-foot (430-square-meter) house on the shores of Fishers Island, New York, located off the coast of Connecticut in Long Island Sound. The long, glazed structure maximizes a sense of connection between indoors and out, with two landscaped courtyards, and views of the surrounding gardens and the Sound from throughout the house. It contains few discrete rooms; instead, a series of parallel partitions provides separation of space.

In form and detailing, the Fishers Island House resembles the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion that the architects designed for Rice University around the same time.

Visually delicate metal trellis structures extend from all sides of the house, providing shade as well as softening the transition between building and garden. Like the Rice pavilion, the house is designed to take advantage of natural ventilation. It further relies on geothermal heating and cooling.

Journalism Hub at Columbia

An interior renovation and cafe addition combine to form the Toni Stabile Student Center at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. In a 9,000-square-foot (840-square-meter) section of the existing Journalism Building by McKim, Mead and White, architects Marble Fairbanks created a "social hub," a newsroom below, and other related spaces. A single-story, 1,000-square-foot (93-square-meter) cafe was inserted between the building and the adjacent dorm.

The architects developed several surfaces of perforated powder-coated steel to meet a variety of objectives in the center. In the multipurpose social hub, steel panels backed with acoustic insulation form an acoustically absorptive ceiling, with perforation and folding patterns optimized by digital acoustic modeling.

Steel was also used on the west wall of the space to create a design feature, with a perforated image based on a photograph of the view outside the room, across Broadway. In the cafe, corrugated steel hangs below the glass roof as a shading device.

The east facade of the cafe, facing inward toward the campus, consists of three glass panels: two fixed transom pieces, and a large lower glass wall that is motorized and rises up behind the transom, like a giant double-hung window, allowing the cafe to open to the outdoors. The glass reflects the sky and its surroundings, helping the cafe to almost disappear into its context among the historic buildings.   >>>

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SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Along with significant engineering adjustments to the elevated track structure, the High Line project added a handful of new structures, such as the 10th Avenue Square (pictured). Photo: Iwan Baan Extra Large Image Site plan diagram of first phase of the High Line project Image: James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro/ Courtesy City of New York Extra Large Image Morphosis designed 41 Cooper Square, a major new academic building for the Cooper Union in Lower Manhattan. Photo: Iwan Baan Extra Large Image 41 Cooper Square northwest-southeast section drawing, looking southwest. Image: Morphosis Extra Large Image The irregularly faceted profile of 41 Cooper Square's double facade is interrupted by several unusually shaped openings. The building is expected to earn a LEED Platinum certification. Photo: Iwan Baan Extra Large Image A grid of small rectangular panels and window openings forms most of the main facade of the East Harlem School in East Harlem, Manhattan. Photo: Erik Freeland Extra Large Image East Harlem School circulation diagram. Image: Peter Gluck and Partners Extra Large Image Peter Gluck and Partners designed the East Harlem School with classrooms on the upper floors and common spaces on the lower floors. Photo: Erik Freeland Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.