Campus Link

953, Danby Road, Ithaca, NY, United States

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Campus Link

953, Danby Road, Ithaca, NY, United States

YEAR

2009

SIZE

5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft

IthacaCollege is a campus that sits on the north facing side of a hill in upstate New York looking over the city of Ithaca. One of the spectacular features of the campus is the view that it offers of Cayuga Lake. For many students, the experience of the campus is organized around a main interior circulation spine that runs east-west across the side of the hill, connecting many of their major buildings. The Link project extends that connection east through Dillingham Hall and into the student services building (PeggyRyanWilliamsCenter). Programmatically the building is an extension of the circulation spine and also incorporates two general use classrooms.

Although the main programmatic driver for this project was the extension of the interior circulation spine, the functional impact it has on exterior circulation and the outdoor campus experience is equally significant. The roof of the building is an extension of the fountain terrace, creating not only the opportunity to occupy a place that celebrates both the fountain and the lake, but also an accessible route from the main quad into Dillingham Hall. The building sits at the uphill side of a major campus plaza that symbolically connects the Ithaca College Fountain with Cayuga Lake.

The Building orientation, with all glazing to the north, minimizes solar heat gain while providing quality natural day lighting. Glazing at the classrooms is tilted at 22 degrees (sun angle at noon in the summer) to maximize available ambient light and cut off all direct light. The south side of the building is buried in the side of the hill, and at points attached to an adjacent building, taking advantage of natural earth temperatures and minimizing heat loss.