John A. Paulson Center at NYU

Project highlights: John A. Paulson Center at NYU

• Architect: Davis Brody Bond and KieranTimberlake
• Owner: New York University
• Location: New York 

On the southern edge of New York University’s campus, the new 735,000-square-foot John A. Paulson Center stands as a new gateway that mediates the transition between two modernist superblocks and the urban streetscape of Greenwich Village. The building addresses the university’s pressing need for additional academic space while simultaneously offering new opportunities for its community members to engage with one another and the city at large.

Since 1833, the university’s campus has surrounded Washington Square Park, operating within a dense and diverse mix of buildings. With many competing uses for limited real estate, its academic programs have typically functioned with much less space than at its peer institutions. The opening of the center was informed by a 2009 master plan that emphasized densifying the university’s existing buildings to accommodate general classroom space as well as specialized spaces for its renowned performing arts programs, student and faculty housing, and athletic facilities.

To optimize the interaction between a diverse range of student groups and academic disciplines, the team organized the center into four major components that coalesce into a single freestanding building that engages with the neighborhood on all fronts. The first of those components is the five-story academic base. It contains a mix of classroom and study spaces, three performing arts theaters, music instruction and rehearsal spaces, and a dining cafe. The spaces are organized into discrete neighborhoods connected by an open and expansive commons where students are encouraged to gather or study. The academic program is crowned by a series of green roofs and an accessible terrace.

At the ground floor and below grade, an athletics facility hosts varsity and recreational sports, including a cardio studio, a multipurpose fencing room, a six-lane pool, wrestling and martial arts space, squash courts, and a track that surrounds a four-court competition gymnasium for basketball and volleyball. Above, an undergraduate residence with 420 beds and three resident-only lounges is accessible through a sixth-floor lobby, while a 23-story tower containing 42 apartments expands faculty housing.

Throughout the design process, university leadership expressed a desire for an enhanced sense of openness after years of developing “fortress-like” buildings that focused on student insulation over integration with urban life. That wish became a central tenet that informed the center’s design, leading to strategies that foster community and identity. Its circulation was organized along the perimeter, where full-height glazing provides views of the surrounding buildings and parks, while the instructional spaces sit at the heart of the building. On its west side, a pedestrian greenway that flows into Houston and Bleecker streets reconnects a long-severed street grid.