Email #55 - North Wing in Winter

Here are three views of the future studio spaces on the 2nd floor of the North Wing, before it gets filled in more. Where there were once four separate rooms for four studio classes, next year there will be four studios in “one big room.” However, the space will not be completely open because of low partition walls running east-west and more serious walls to be built along the north-south axis of the historic steel columns.

The four studio quadrants will open to each other at a central Commons area. In the bottom photo this opening is located at bottom center.

The orange paint on the floor in the bottom photo marks the location of the new breather wall. This will connect to the catwalk plenum, which is best seen in the middle photo.

One pleasant surprise for me is that the newly applied shotcrete walls have not “faded to gray” but instead have retained a greenish or bluish tint, depending on the light.  This is supposed to be Finish, but up close it’s messy in places. Actually, that would give the studios an instant tortured patina, as if students still used pen & ink & paint, even if they don’t.

John Stamets
Dec. 21, 2006