CREW Blue Ribbon Awards Program Book 2022

Schwarzman Center, Yale University New Haven, Connecticut

Yale’s Schwarzman Center transforms Carrère & Hastings’ historic Commons and three floors of the adjoining Memorial Hall—components of their 1901 Bicentennial Buildings—into a social hub for the university’s undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Capitalizing on its location at the geographic center of campus, the Schwarzman Center is dedicated to both cultural programming and student life, outfitted with state- of-the-art technology that enables virtual engagement with the Yale community away from campus, as well as with the broader public. The idea for a new campus center came about thanks to a study conducted at Yale, which indicated a high level of student support. Besides this, the severe disrepair of the floors presented an urgent need for renovation. Schwarzman donated over $100 million to the project, both for the buiding and for support programs. The renovations retain and restore the building’s historic architectural features and return to public use the top-floor Dome Room, for decades the yearbook office, reinventing it as a flexible experimental performance space. Service areas below the Commons are reclaimed to create a bistro and additional gathering spaces to be configured for performances. Below Memorial Hall, a circular room with exposed granite foundation walls became a pub, the Well. The Commons was optimized for performance, with a new HVAC system, targeted lighting, integrated projection and blackout shades, and wooden panets to improve acoustics. A sweeping stair descending from Hewitt Plaza provides entrance to the lower-level social spaces, and a skylit second-floor addition along Grove Street, inspired by a 1906 Carrère & Hastings proposal for private dining rooms, creates a series of double-height lounges and meeting rooms that in the evening hours are a beacon for the Yale community, visible when approaching from Science Hill and our firm’s Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin Residential Colleges to the north. Owner : Yale University . Size : 123,388 sf Project Team: Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Robert Silman Associates, AKF Group, LLC, Langan, L'Observatoire International, Jaffe Holden Acoustics, Fisher Dachs Associates, Atelier Ten, Ricca Design Studios, Kleinfelder, Simpson, Gumpertz and Heger, Inc., Philip R. Sherman, P.E., Existing Conditions Surveys, Inc., Construction Specifications, Inc., Dimeo Construction Company, ©Francis Dzikowski/Otto

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