StanfordNYC

Predicated on the dissolution of the traditional purity of academic disciplines and on the corresponding notion that discovery and innovation occur across what once had been boundaries, the integrated architecture and landscape strategy for Roosevelt Island creates places for “productive collisions” among innovators. 

The campus is conceived as a series of translational strands – buildings, esplanades, promenades, courtyards, green roofs – that support the essential activities of exploration and innovation: research, teaching, living, playing, creating. As they intertwine, intersect and interact, the strands reinforce and enrich one another, creating a new physical model in which scholarship and entrepreneurship can thrive. 

Referencing the Manhattan city grid across the river, these “strands” are segmented and reoriented to maximize access to daylight, solar orientation, circulation, and entrance points. These segments are then joined by a continuous campus connector called “the River”.

Each architectural strand represents an element of the campus program, e.g. laboratory, office / amenity, faculty and student housing and incubator. In the interstices created by intertwining strands are both indoor atria and outdoor spaces of various sizes and types. 

The scale and density of the campus take their cues from Roosevelt Island and the dense urban fabric of the surrounding New York City boroughs, and the massing is directed toward maximizing daylighting, natural ventilation and reducing solar heat gain.