Project name: Academic Center, Cornell University Law School
Project location: Ithaca, New York
Firm name: Ann Beha Architects
Jury comments: Elegantly executed, this renovation and expansion of a Gothic academic center takes the landscape and turns it into a space that gives meaning to the entire campus. By building the new center below an existing lawn, the campus grows without increasing its footprint. A new entrance and reinvigorated court integrates the complex. Though steps are commonly used on campuses as a way of sitting in the landscape without introducing more clutter, this big flight of stairs does not fully resolve a topographical issue, nor does it provide universal access. Overall, this is a very effective reconstruction in which less is more. Especially well done is the establishment of the relationship between the interior and exterior, manifesting an idea of “building as topography.”
