Joyce F. Brown Academic Building

SHoP Architects

Client: DASNY

Located in the heart of Manhattan’s Fashion District, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is the preeminent institution of fashion and design education in the country. The primary goal of the design for the Joyce F. Brown Academic Building, located at FIT, was to create an iconic space that would form a lasting identity for the school, and also functionally link adjacent campus buildings with the new addition. From the beginning of the design process, SHoP set out to express the dynamism and creativity that define FIT, bringing into view what had previously been concealed by the campus’s inward-facing Brutalist structures. Every aspect of the new 10,200 square meter academic building was shaped by this effort, giving FIT a public face commensurate with its role and reputation within the Fashion District and Manhattan.

Set on a narrow 75-by-18-meter site directly adjacent to the college’s first building, the Feldman Center, the new academic building establishes a close architectural and symbolic dialogue with its neighbor. A 4.5-meter wide and 10-story tall atrium connects the two structures, creating a vertical common where the college’s past and future meet. This light-filled space, cathedral-like in scale and spirit, showcases student and faculty work in glass vitrines and frames views into student making activities within Feldman Center. The building’s features include 24 energy-efficient classrooms and studios, administrative offices, a large presentation hall, a student commons, and the largest campus knitting lab in the U.S. Bringing the magical activity of the knitting lab out of the basement of the Feldman Center and into public view was a critical feature in reconnecting FIT with the street life of the Fashion District. SHoP designed a double-height space for the below-grade facility, opening to windows at the sidewalk level and allowing passersby a view over the colorful scene. The student commons (the school’s first), occupies the entire 5th floor. Under soaring 6-meter-high ceilings, it is a grand space that serves as an indoor campus “quad” for FIT, and is outfitted for all manner of informal gathering. Activity is displayed to the street below as part of the effort to showcase the vitality of the school. Along one side, an ornamental screen, fronted by custom banquettes, serves as a guardrail while referencing the historic façade of the Feldman Center visible across the atrium. A pair of custom-millwork kiosks anchor either end of the room: one a servery for snacks, the other an outpost of FIT’s library. Feldman Center’s distinctive tessellated aluminum skin, punctuated by anodized golden window frames, served as direct inspiration for the origami-like folded metal panels that define the new façade on 28th Street. The fins defining the new facade are anodized aluminum extrusions that were cut and reformed to create an undulating pattern. Together, the two buildings form a dynamic composition—one reflecting the heritage of design innovation, the other projecting that legacy into the future. FIT is targeting LEED Gold accreditation for the high-performance building, which features sustainable materials, smart technology, energy efficiency, daylighting, and sustainable construction practices.