Polytechnic University of NYU
Jacobs Building & Othmer Residence Hall
Brooklyn, NY

200,000 SF • 18,600 SQ M

Polytechnic Institute of NYU, one of the leading engineering schools in the United States, commissioned Davis Brody Bond to formulate a master plan for the campus’s future growth. The goals of the master plan were to provide a strategy for expanding and modernizing the school’s existing academic facilities, as well as to introduce residential and student life facilities that had not existed at this primarily commuter school.

Following the Master Plan, Davis Brody Bond was commissioned to design the Joseph J. and Violet J. Jacobs Building, a mixed-use building that contains six academic floors and a recreation/gymnasium complex. The academic areas include two lecture halls, several multipurpose seminar rooms, engineering and computer labs as well as wet-labs for the chemistry and biology departments.

This new building is an addition to the school’s existing Rogers Hall. Its L-shaped plan creates an internal, landscaped courtyard directly above the gymnasium level. Located on Jay Street in Brooklyn, it represents a new image and a new front door for the University. The entry lobby is a three-story atrium that offers access to both the academic floors and the gymnasium level. The lobby also connects the building to other student meetings areas in the existing Rogers Hall, such as the cafeteria and lounge space.

The materials and architectural vocabulary used in the design of Jacobs Building unite the structure with Othmer Residence Hall, also designed by Davis Brody Bond. A glass curtain wall, precast concrete and metal panels are all part of a consistent design vocabulary intended to create the sense of a cohesive campus. The unification of these structures will be further enhanced by the upgrading and re-skinning of the original Rogers Hall in the next phase.

(Photography by Paul Warchol and Christopher Lovi)