Construction Update: The Milstein Center
Façade installation is underway at Barnard College's new interdisciplinary education building, The Cheryl and Philip Milstein Teaching and Learning Center. Designed by SOM, The Milstein Center will contain 128,000-square-foot of faculty and student space, including a library, conference facilities, interdisciplinary workspace, and a home for the Athena Center for Leadership Studies and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. The building's massing incorporates a five-story stepped horizontal bar at the south end of the site, which will allow sunlight access for Lehman Lawn and offer rooftop outdoor spaces that extend the lawn into the building. A 12-story tower at the northern end will be similar in height to the adjacent Altschul Hall. A cantilevered space on the 10th floor of the tower echoes a similar cantilever of Weiss/Manfredi's The Diana Center located across the lawn.
The Milstein Center will be clad with glass and a muted copper-toned metal panel, which references the college's existing brick buildings and the Diana Center's fritted glass facade. Installation of the facade is nearing the half-way mark, revealing the mixture of flat and sloping metal panels that provide texture to the exterior wall.
Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM); Client: Barnard College at Columbia University; Program: Interdisciplinary Education; Location: Morningside Heights, New York, NY; Completion: Fall 2018.