New York—The new 98,000-sq.-ft., seven-story Diana Center at Barnard College in New York was designed by New York-based WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism to open up the campus to its Morningside Heights community, uniting architecture and landscape, interior and exterior, into a spectacular glass-clad building.

Set to open in February 2010 and certified as LEED Silver, the state-of-the-art Diana Center is not only houses classroom, studio, library, administrative, and gallery space for the architecture and art history departments; dining and café facilities; and a black box theater and oval event space, but also it is positioned as the new nexus of campus, uniting academic, cultural, and social functions into one physical space.

A series of stacked, double-height, glass atria, along with an unfolded glazed staircase offer views from inside to the entire campus and city itself, and this sense of transparency makes the Diana Center one with its community. More than 1,100 clear and etched color glass panels of varying widths form the façade, which translates the brick and terracotta if the surrounding buildings. Situated with its public face on Broadway, the structure glows from within like a beacon.

Michael Manfredi, principal at WEISS/MANFREDI says, “We wanted to create a contemporary building with a presence on Broadway. Before, there was a big concrete wall and the campus turned its back on the city. The shape of this new building allows for a visual connection back to the campus.” The adjacent Lehman Lawn is actually drawn into the building horizontally and vertically through descending planted terraces, and the center’s green roof offers a living ecological learning center for students, as well as an ideal outdoor green space in the midst of the city for gatherings and events.

“The collaboration between the landscape and building has been a driving force behind the design for the Diana Center,” explains Marion Weiss, principal at WEISS/MANFREDI. “We envisioned the center as an open lens that would showcase the activities and programs at Barnard and make them visible, enhancing the college’s dynamic relationship to the city.”