CU, two architecture firms and local contractor teamed for NCRI

Today the Cornell Chronicle presents the third installment of a four-week series on the university's North Campus Residential Initiative.

Previous installments of this series:

• A look at new structures on North Campus
• New North Campus is the realization of a vision

Also in this issue:
Sustainability was goal for planners of the North Campus facilities

By Linda Myers

In an unusual collaboration, two architects from different firms worked together on the design for the new North Campus Residential Initiative.

In 1997 a selection committee headed by University Architect Peter Karp compiled a short list of architectural firms to redesign North Campus. Invited to Cornell to discuss their ideas for the project, Alan Chimacoff, B.Arch. '64, of the Hillier Group in Princeton, N.J., and Charles Dagit, of Dagit-Saylor Associates in Philadelphia, tied for the top slot. The Hillier Group had redone Cornell's Sage Hall and Lab of Ornithology buildings, and Dagit-Saylor had built student unions for two Pennsylvania universities. "They both had ideas that were valuable," said Karp.

Freshmen, from left, Nicole Spruill, from Raleigh, N.C.; Tavon Brooks, from Baltimore; Nyissia Spruill (Nicole's twin sister); Rebecca Dantas, from Branchburg, N.J.; and Katie Cheng, from Flushing, N.Y., have a late afternoon discussion in the first floor hallway of Court Hall, Sept. 8. Robert Barker/University Photography

Could the architects and their firms work together? Karp asked. "I told them, 'I'm not asking you to joint venture, I'm asking you to get married.'" The two, who had been colleagues and friends since the early 1970s, agreed to the unusual union.

The university, through Karp and the project team, decided that Dagit-Saylor would plan the student commons building, the Hillier Group would design the two new residence halls, and the two groups would work hand-in-hand on the site plan as well as on the details that would link the three buildings to each other and the rest of North Campus. Their challenge was to find a way to make all the disparate elements already dotting the area "like popcorn," in Dagit's words, work together with the new buildings as a single whole.

They met often, sometimes weekly, from January 1998 on, in each other's offices, on campus, even in an FAA conference room at Philadelphia's airport -- wherever was most convenient.

A view of Mews Hall from the entrance to the Community Commons building on North Campus. Robert Barker/University Photography

For starters, they studied the original plans for the siting of the earliest North Campus buildings, Balch Hall, built in 1927-28, and Clara Dickson Hall, built in 1947-48. "From the beginning Balch was the paradigm for our project," Chimacoff said. "We were determined to use it as our conceptual, inspirational starting point. We were trying to reclaim the clear direction that was lost," when newer buildings like Donlon and the Low- and High-Rise residence halls were built and sited haphazardly.

One morning in April 1998, the two architects met in the Hillier Group's office to review a pile of sketches, none of them quite right, when they jointly had one of those "Aha!" moments. "It was incredible!" said Chimacoff. "When we nailed it, we knew it," added Dagit.

The architects envisioned a "great crescent" akin to the Arts Quadrangle on central campus, that would arch between a new student union to the east, two new residence halls to the north and west and Helen Newman Hall and Beebe Lake to the south.

"Every campus has a unique, distinctive quality about it," said Dagit. "On Cornell's central campus, the defining space is the Arts Quad. The North Campus crescent could be another such defining space."

In addition, a series of rising courtyards would fan out behind Balch and lead all the way to Jessup Road behind Robert Purcell Community Center. One of the new residence halls would form an enclosed area, or court, with the courtyards of Dickson to its west and Balch to its south. The adjacent residence hall would echo Balch's design, with two wings linked by a belvedere, or overlook, rising above a mews -- a cul de sac formed by the building's three sides. The design led to naming the buildings Court and Mews halls.

The architects also used materials and colors in the new buildings that linked them to the older structures. They noted that the exterior of Balch is entirely stone, Dickson is stone and brick, Donlon is brick and concrete and the low- and high-rise residence halls are all brick.

Union masons contracted by Welliver McGuire -- Roger Abbott, left, of Venice Center, and Robert Freelove, of Trumansburg -- work on the walkway around the North Campus crescent in August, before the arrival of new students. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

"It's not feasible economically to build buildings all out of stone today," said Chimacoff.

So they devised a logical pattern for the building materials already in use on North Campus and the materials they planned to use. Employing "shrewd combinations of stone and brick" for the new buildings, Chimacoff chose to make the highly visible outer edges of the residence halls of locally quarried Llenroc, the same shale-dense stone that was used in Balch.

The roofs of the new residence halls are made of a distinctive-looking zinc material in a diamond-shaped pattern that evokes Balch's shingled roofs. And the square patterns etched into the glass windows of the new residence halls echo the leaded-glass casement windows of Balch.

The Community Commons "is designed all around light," said Dagit, with a roof that lets in as much natural light as possible during the day and a west wall that acts like a screen to reflect the light softly into the building's interior spaces. At night, the Commons is intended to glow like a welcoming beacon to students crossing the campus.

Standing on the Mews Hall belvedere are Cornell administrators and project leaders for the North Campus Residential Initiative, from left: Harold Craft, vice president for administration and chief financial officer; David Newman, director of construction management in Planning, Design and Construction; John Kiefer, NCRI project leader in Planning, Design and Construction; Susan Murphy, vice president for student and academic services; Joni Carroll, project manager in the architectural section of Planning, Design and Construction; and Jean Reese, NCRI project leader in Student and Academic Services. Charles Harrington/University Photography

Once the designs were complete, Cornell's Department of Planning, Design and Construction (PDC) asked a list of contractors to bid on the project and selected Welliver McGuire of Elmira, N.Y. The firm developed a schedule and a series of shop drawings for fabrication based on the architects' designs.

Henry Doney, associate vice president for facilities services at Cornell, said: "Cornell has a long-standing agreement with the Tompkins-Cortland Building Trades Council that workers on Cornell-owned structures must be members of the international unions represented by the council." The council represents electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters, masons, sheet-metal workers and trade assistants.

"The busy construction season for the Ithaca area over the past several years made skilled labor, masons in particular, very scarce," Doney commented. "The marvel of the North Campus Residential Initiative building project was the incredible teamwork between Welliver McGuire, the unions and the dedicated Cornell people who overcame enormous hurdles to bring this project in on time," he said. "On Cornell's part, John Kiefer, program manager for facilities, David Newman, manager of construction and Joni Carroll, project manager, played a vital role in this remarkable success."

Ed Ritchie, president of the Tompkins-Cortland Building Trades Council, said: "Cornell exerted itself to see that local workers got a chance to work on the North Campus construction project and earn a living. The project was also an all-around success story for women and minorities," particularly union painters, carpenters and bricklayers, whose participation was higher than the national average in the construction trades, said Ritchie.

Frank Carney, foreman and safety coordinator with Welliver McGuire, noted that tradespeople put in many 10-hour days and six-day weeks -- 750,000 worker-hours in all -- to complete the project on time, while maintaining quality standards. "It was 'push' from day one. Every piece of Llenroc from local quarries was hand chipped. There are a lot of unsung heroes on this job. We all dedicated a part of our lives to make it happen."