41 Cooper Square by Morphosis

Architectural photographer Roland Halbe has sent us his photographs of the recently-completed academic building forThe Cooper Union in New York, designed by Thom Mayne of American practice Morphosis.

Located at 41 Cooper Square, the building houses the college’s three schools teaching art, architecture and engineering.

The building is wrapped in a perforated stainless steel skin.

A six metre-wide staircase spirals around the central atrium, intended to provide meeting places and encourage dialogue between disciplines.

The main elevators stop only at the first, fifth and eighth floors to increase students’ physical activity.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

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41 COOPER SQUARE
Architect’s Statement
Thom Mayne of Morphosis

41 Cooper Square, the new academic building for The Cooper Union, aspires to manifest the character, culture and vibrancy of both the 150 year-old institution and of the city in which it was founded. The institution remains committed to Peter Cooper’s radically optimistic intention to provide an education “as free as water and air” and has subsequently grown to become a renowned intellectual and cultural center for the City of New York. 41 Cooper Square aspires to reflect the institution’s stated goal to create an iconic building – one that reflects its values and aspirations as a center for advanced and innovative education in Art, Architecture and Engineering.

Internally, the building is conceived as a vehicle to foster collaboration and cross-disciplinary dialogue among the college’s three schools, previously housed in separate buildings. A vertical piazza—the central space for informal social, intellectual and creative exchange—forms the heart of the new academic building. An undulating lattice envelopes a 20-foot wide grand stair which ascends four stories from the ground level through the sky-lit central atrium, which itself reaches to the full height of the building. This vertical piazza is the social heart of the building, providing a place for impromptu and planned meetings, student gatherings, lectures, and for the intellectual debate that defines the academic environment.