Lenfest Center for the Arts
New York, USA
Client: Columbia University
Renzo Piano Building Workshop
in collaboration with Davis Brody Bond LLP (New York)
Renzo Piano Building Workshop designed the eight-story, 60,000-square-foot structure with Davis Brody Bond, LLP, as executive architect and Body Lawson Associates, a Harlem-based certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), as associate architect—the same team that designed the Jerome L. Greene Science Center. The design team utilized innovative structural techniques to achieve high ceilings and large open spaces uninterrupted by columns—critical elements for a performing arts center that cannot be attained with standard I-steel beams. Windows in some of the venues allow for flexibility in controlling natural light, including a skylight on the ceiling of the 8th floor’s flexible presentation space, which features custom lighting and motorized shade tracks. The Lenfest Center for the Arts stands prominently behind the “Small Square” public plaza on West 125th Street between Broadway and 12th Avenue, just west of Columbia’s Jerome L. Greene Science Center.