Princeton Campus Center Addition
Princeton, NJ
1990
The Princeton Campus Center is a renovation of the East Pine Cafeteria and Chancellor Green Building as well as an addition of new dining and meeting facilities facing Nassau Green. From a programmatic point of view, the challenge was to maximize the use of existing spaces and to create a fluid communication between all spaces in the new organization. From a symbolic point of view, the location of the building was of major importance. The site is very prominent, located between the Nassau Street entrance to the campus next to the Firestone Library and the Nassau Green, the oldest and historically most significant area of the university.
The project presented a contradiction and therefore a challenge: the design was to project an identity and a symbolic presence and at the same time avoid direct competition with the existing buildings.
The Princeton Campus Center was conceived as a cluster of garden elements that is never perceived as a whole object. These elements perform two different roles: they supplement the existing structures and places and they propose movement sequences that flow from the existing to the new.
The project proposes to change the datum of the entrance level from a hyphen that links the Chancellor Green to East Pine to a kiosk placed at the level of the existing basement of the Chancellor Green building. The new structure produces a totally new reading of the entry.
The kiosk is the first of a sequence of garden elements that organize the new building. A “neck” links the entrance of the kiosk to a greenhouse that acts as a second hyphen between Chancellor Green and the new Campus Center. A stone wall articulates the greenhouse with the dining and meeting facilities. The stairs inside the greenhouse provide a connection to the existing cafe in Chancellor Green; a new bridge links this cafe to the roof garden of the Campus Center. A monumental stair opens up this garden to the green, both for a natural promenade and a place to sit and watch graduation ceremonies or other special occasions. The facade of the building facing Nassau Street defines a new garden connected to the roof by a ramp.
A student restaurant and cafe currently occupy the first floor of the East Pine Cafeteria and the Chancellor Green Building. The new building is to house an expanded restaurant, smaller private dining and meeting rooms, and a new kitchen.
The different sequences of enclosed private to more open public places overlap in section and at the same time maintain separate identities.
The project presented a contradiction and therefore a challenge: the design was to project an identity and a symbolic presence and at the same time avoid direct competition with the existing buildings.
The Princeton Campus Center was conceived as a cluster of garden elements that is never perceived as a whole object. These elements perform two different roles: they supplement the existing structures and places and they propose movement sequences that flow from the existing to the new.
The project proposes to change the datum of the entrance level from a hyphen that links the Chancellor Green to East Pine to a kiosk placed at the level of the existing basement of the Chancellor Green building. The new structure produces a totally new reading of the entry.
The kiosk is the first of a sequence of garden elements that organize the new building. A “neck” links the entrance of the kiosk to a greenhouse that acts as a second hyphen between Chancellor Green and the new Campus Center. A stone wall articulates the greenhouse with the dining and meeting facilities. The stairs inside the greenhouse provide a connection to the existing cafe in Chancellor Green; a new bridge links this cafe to the roof garden of the Campus Center. A monumental stair opens up this garden to the green, both for a natural promenade and a place to sit and watch graduation ceremonies or other special occasions. The facade of the building facing Nassau Street defines a new garden connected to the roof by a ramp.
A student restaurant and cafe currently occupy the first floor of the East Pine Cafeteria and the Chancellor Green Building. The new building is to house an expanded restaurant, smaller private dining and meeting rooms, and a new kitchen.
The different sequences of enclosed private to more open public places overlap in section and at the same time maintain separate identities.