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Rosannah Sandoval 03.26.14 Master of Architecture II The Cooper Union

A Tale of Two Buildings

It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity – the period was a year of

transition, the year I attended Cooper Union. There were an art and architecture school deeply

rooted in the Foundation Building; there was an engineering school housed in the progressive

41 Cooper Square. In both buildings, it was clearer than crystal to the administration that things

in general were changed forever. It was the year 2013 when the institution erupted into protest

at the announcement of breaking Peter Cooper’s 150-year-old promise for free educational to

all those admitted. Unable to accept this proposition, a riff ensued between the students and

the administration. Environed by these tensions, the two buildings appear on the surface as the

image of a divide within the institution, but their propinquity goes much deeper.

As a current student, I cannot speak to a Cooper Union that once was (pre-New

Academic Building) as many nostalgic Almuni often do, but I can speak as someone from the

inside at this critical moment in its legacy. The physical dialectic between past and future is

omnipresent in the daily experience of the place. It is not a campus insulated by an urban

buffer but a pair of buildings at the crux of lower Manhattan where the city flows through. This

is one of its strengths as a civic and intellectual focal point with both historic and state-of-the-

art auditoriums and gallery spaces. Both structures embody the forefront of advancement in

their respective times. While the Foundation Building (first structural rolled-iron I-beams and

elevator shaft) is a treasured Landmark, the New Building (first Platinum academic laboratory in

NYC) is a much louder aesthetic statement on Cooper Square. This vibrant icon of the Cooper

Union has led to the existence of common misconceptions outside of its internal community.

Before joining the student body, I eagerly visited 41 Cooper Square only to be greeted

by a sign, “Cooper Union is Closed to the Public.” All the facilities are under an equally strict

security policy and understandably so due to the cardinal New York City location. However, for

the starry-eyed artist or architect hoping to catch a glimpse of the iconic stair, the first

impression is a cold denial and send-off. The moment I received the coveted student ID, I was

free to roam the Morphosis-designed corridors and work in the same studios once graced by

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Pritzker Prize winner Shigeru Ban. In the routine schedule of attending classes in both locals,

one develops a predisposition to the quirks of such tenacious characters. In the Foundation

lobbies, I find myself sprinting between widespread elevators - square to circular and back -

that are illogically on one call button. During studio, I occasionally duck from the collapse of

my “architect’s” desk lamp circa 1965, which has not ever been replaced. Other times, I become

inadvertently stranded on the 6TH or 7th floor of Mayne’s Vertical Piazza with no connecting

stair or sign of a restroom. But the extents of these oddities are rarely grasped until months of

intimate navigation. There is a mystification of the internal nature of the institution that I find

endearing. Most notably, that the School of Architecture should exist in the New Building,

presumably because of its architectural accolades. This identity dialectic is fascinating relative

to the physical manifestation of Cooper Union’s split pedagogy.

The most essential understanding of the college is a Union of three discrete schools.

Three separate buildings once encapsulated each intellectual identity. With an ambitious

combination directly in its title, “for the Advancement of Science and Art,” divergent thinkers

intrinsically inhabit the college. The notion to encourage cross-pollination through spatial

interaction is a noble one, and something that I have explored in my own work, but question if

it can genuinely be achieved through mere circulation. 41 Cooper Square has the clear

aspiration for interdisciplinary cultivation intertwined with the central stair - a remarkable

construct in its own right that offers new discoveries upon each encounter. However, I have

traversed the stair many times and have yet to strike up a conversation next to the contorting

handrail, maybe this is my own undoing. I believe that the most intriguing aspect about the

building is the symbolic openness with the urban context through visual transparency, a poetic

gesture towards Peter Cooper’s vision for free education for all. I quite love the extroverted

nature of the internal shared spaces or “sky lobbies”, where the double skin façade is cut open

and a moment for pause occurs where my conversations often take place. Between classes I am

always struck by the overwhelming presence of the East Village surrounding the New Building.

This is something I fail to experience in the Foundation Building, which fosters an introspective

quality however; the front steps that are unfailingly populated by students from all three

schools make up for this.

It is difficult for me to imagine a Cooper Union without both of these buildings. Their

correspondence is a reminder to me of the balance that architectural discourse requires in

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representing its past while presenting its future. Only the test of time will reveal the relevancy

of 41 Cooper Square as a significant work of architecture in the next era. If someone were to

conduct a major renovation, as John Hejduk implemented on the Foundation building, what

elements would they keep? Assuming that the institution exists in 2164, one hundred and fifty

years from now, what parts of the building will adapt to future programs that have not been

invented yet, and what will remain - the façade or the stair? The path to fulfill this scenario has

been charted through the recent actions that have changed the institution forever. The 2013-14

academic year is historic as the last class to receive free education and perhaps more

importantly has given rise to a revolutionary student body that is deeply reflective of their

current meaning and purpose. These pressures have prompted the schools to reinvigorate a

self-critical outlook. The apparent divide of the institution as expressed in its architecture and

recent events is actually building its greatest strength for a new legacy.

Fig. 1: Plan / Axon of Cooper Square and adjacent Cooper Union buildings.

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Fig. 2: Eighth floor sky lobby, 41 Cooper Square.

Fig. 3: Front steps, Foundation Building.