When a university expansion goes ahead as planned without the usual neighborhood objections and media fallout, that’s almost news in itself. Such is the case with Pratt’s new Myrtle Hall, a multi-use structure housing admissions, studios and offices, that quietly opened to the public on January 10. WASA/Studio A designed the building.

Widely expected to meet the LEED Gold standards, the new sliver of a building crams over 100,000 square feet into its 75 foot by 205 wide plot; the ground floor is filled with retail storefronts.

“If there was ever a site that required two different responses this was it,” said design partner Jack Esterson, referring to a “sea of parking lots” to the south and Fort Greene’s brownstones nearby. “We wanted something that was resolutely contemporary, but responsive,” he said.

The building is a four-story masonry volume intersecting a six-story glass volume. The third and most visible element is large glass cutout with Pratt’s logo etched onto the glass. The cutout reveals a two-story atrium that will function as the school’s art gallery.

Tom Stoelker