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Graduate
Research Scholar Program
University of Southern California School of Architecture |
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student:
faculty: contact: |
Alice
Gates, MHPRES |
| RESEARCH
summary
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title:
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Hybrid
Building Typology
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| Working as a Research Scholar this year, I assisted Kim Coleman with her research on the hybrid building typology. The intention was to study precedents of hybrid buildings already working in the capacity of being useful to multiple functions, uses, and times of day The goal was to learn what aspects of the typology were effective as models for the built environment in the future. I looked at the broad typology and work within that topic, moving through the year to a focused study of a single hybrid building. The building chosen was The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, built from 1853-59. Founded by Peter Cooper as a free institute of higher learning, the building as designed is an interesting study in the hybrid building typology. The building itself is significant due to the future thinking technology systems in place, such as an elevator shaft. It was originally designed with a basement auditorium to take advantage of the seclusion from street noise and lack of need for daylight. The first and second stories were to be rented as commercial and office space to help pay for the free institute. The third floor was a museum, and the fourth was to house a cosmorama, with a roof garden above. After many years and rising costs and realization of usefulness of spaces, the built scheme did not include the roof garden, the museum became a free reading room, the cosmorama became a laboratory, and the discussion rooms became classrooms. While the final plan was much more useful for the spaces, the hybrid functions can be seen in even the possibility of adapting the spaces for various purposes. The building still today has the same function, housing the library, auditorium, and art and architecture departments of Cooper Union. With many changes and additions, it still functions in many of the same ways it originally was intended to function. |  |
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