The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture, Academic Building and Library

The renovation and expansion joins two early twentieth-century residential buildings with narrow footprints and stringent landmark regulations into one modern building. Behind the restored historic brick and limestone Beaux Arts façades the buildings are stripped to the structural steel, two additional floors are added on top and into the rear yard. A new brick, copper and glass rear yard facade reflects the minimal aesthetic of the interior spaces.

Large expanses of glass and new exterior rooftop terraces link interior and exterior, visually expanding the compact quarters of the building. Movement through the building is choreographed to orient users toward the natural light, particularly by creating open spaces from north to south where possible.

The careful insertion of the new structure into its historic framework has transformed the interior of what was a private residence into an open, light-filled public environment for the decorative arts. With new and renovated facades to reflect its new academic identity, the building reemerges as a vital new institutional presence within the urban fabric of the city.