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SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: PHYSICS BUILDING

IN COLLABORATION WITH LOGAN CARROLL

Located on Syracuse University campus the physics building was always a building that was a less than exciting addition to the campus. In this assignment my partner and I were tasked with gutting the building to its pre-existing structure and developing a better solution using that structure. 

The plans feature a central shape on each level that is made up of the auditorium, offices and circulation core on the first floor and offices and a circulation core on the second and third floors. The penthouse is made up of various sized study spaces and furniture for the students. 

The plan of the current physics building features offices pushed to the outer edges of the building leaving internal hallways and classrooms dark and uninviting. We wanted to turn that plan in on itself and push the circulation to the outer edges of the building creating a more pleasant circulation. Then using occupiable lightwells we brought light down through the building, giving light to the offices that make up a central shape in the plan. 

Since we were assigned such a rigid and heavy structure for this bulding we did not want to facade to become a product of the structure. So we developed a series of openings that appear random but are based on a module that expose the structure in various ways throughout the facade. The exposing of the structure at various points prevented the openings from becoming a product of the structure. We then used a system of bricks in a flemish bond pattern with a series of bands and apparently random extruding bricks to give some depth to the facade while still relation to the surrounding context of brick academic buildings. 

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