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
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Glass facade with sun-shades (left), the merging of the brick and glass masses (center), and an interior stair (right). [Click to enlarge.]
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A reception desk in Myrtle Hall’s lobby (above), a corridor overlooking the two-story art gallery (below, left), and another glass-lined corridor with offices (below, right).
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