Winner of a national design competition, a National AIA Award, and a Progressive Architecture Award, the Diana Center establishes a new nexus for social, cultural, and intellectual life at Barnard College. Located on Broadway, the multi-use arts center unites landscape and architecture, interior and exterior in a seven-story building with ascending double-height glass atria and an unfolded glazed staircase that bring in natural light and eliminate visual boundaries between the College and the city. Carving a diagonal void through the building, the slipped atria create views through diverse program spaces and visually connect Lehman Lawn to the upper floors of the building and the green roof. The facade - composed of 1,154 clear and color integral glass panels - translates the brick and terra cotta of the surrounding neighborhood into a luminous, energy-efficient exterior. Envisioned as an innovative center for campus life, the 98,000 square foot building features dynamic layering of previously separate functions. The program includes architecture and painting studios, a 500-seat performance space, black box theatre, cafe, dining room, reading room, classrooms, and exhibition galleries.
The building’s enclosure establishes a reciprocal relationship between the campus context and the diverse program elements within the building.
The Diana Center extends Lehman Lawn horizontally and vertically: descending planted terraces cascade north to Milbank Hall, previously isolated by a 14-foot-high retaining wall and plaza, and ascending double-height atria bring natural light and views into the seven-story structure.
Founded in 1889 as a women’s college affiliated with Columbia University, Barnard College is an intimate campus compressed within the dense urban environment of Manhattan.
Winner of a national design competition and a Progressive Architecture Award, the Diana Center establishes a new nexus for social, cultural, and intellectual life at Barnard College.
Rethinking the mixed-use building type, the Diana Center brings together the college’s previously dispersed programs and constituencies by setting up visual juxtapositions that invite collaboration between disciplines.
From the historic entrance gate at Broadway, the wedge-shaped design frames a clear sightline linking the central campus at Lehman Lawn to the lower level historic core of the campus.
Comprised of an eclectic group of predominantly brick buildings, the campus is focused around Lehman Lawn with disconnected landscape spaces at the periphery.
Located between the Lawn and Broadway, the Diana Center unites landscape and architecture, interior and exterior spaces, presenting a window onto the College and the city.
The facility brings together spaces for art, architecture, theater, and art history, as well as faculty offices, a dining room, and a café.
The 98,000-square-foot multi-use building establishes an innovative nexus for artistic, social, and intellectual life at the College.
Anchoring the lower levels, a 500-seat multipurpose events space and 100-seat black box theatre house lectures, special events, and theatrical productions.
Conceived as a vertical campus quad, this cantilevered route interweaves the spaces of the building into those of the campus.
Carving a diagonal void through the building, the ascending double-height glass atria establish continuous sightlines through the gallery, reading room, dining room, and café.
On the campus side of the building, an unfolded glazed staircase encourages informal encounters at the heart of a rich intellectual community and provides views to the surrounding campus.
Within 1,154 panels of varying widths, gradients of color, opacity, and transparency are calibrated to the Diana Center’s diverse programs, allowing views into the building’s public functions and limiting visibility where privacy is necessary.