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Rutgers Unveils Team for Campus Redesign
Rutgers University has selected a joint venture to redesign its College Avenue campus. Also, a New Jersey municipality is set to start the second phase of a $100 million modernization plan.
Rutgers Design to Undergo Further Planning Stages
Rutgers University unveiled conceptual plans for the redesign of its College Avenue campus last fall and named the winning team of a design competition. But the university will push out the start of construction in favor of more planning aimed at reworking public spaces.
 The team of Enrique Norten of Ten Arquitectos of Mexico City and Ignacio Bunster-Ossa of Wallace, Roberts & Todd Design of Philadelphia won the design competition, which Rutgers held last spring. But the selection process, which included public forums and surveys throughout the fall, also led the university to reevaluate its overall master plan.
“We heard over and over again from the experts who came to campus that we needed to start with more detailed planning and the transforming of public spaces, and that we should defer building until later on,” university president Richard McCormick says in a statement.
The core element of the long-term plan for the entire New Brunswick-Piscataway campus, which serves 35,000 of the 50,000 students at Rutgers, is converting the area into a more pedestrian-friendly public space and developing a transportation hub. The plan also will create new classrooms and laboratories and modernized housing. The university has committed $15 million to the design of the first phase, which will be raised through private donations and federal grants.
The winning team was selected based on its record on other projects, according to the university. Norten’s work in New York includes the Queens Master Plan in Long Island City and a stainless steel screen masking a parking structure at Princeton University, a design that won a gold medal from the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Wallace, Roberts & Todd, a landscape and campus planning firm, has put together master plans for universities in Georgia, California, and Missouri.
The other team members are New York-based Pasanella + Klein Stolzman + Berg, which specializes in historic preservation; Arup, a London-based engineering firm with New York offices; and Green Shield Ecology, a Bridgewater, N.J., firm specializing in landscape restoration.
New Phase in N.J. Redevelopment
The plans for Pier Village II in Long Branch, N.J., the second phase of a large-scale redevelopment project, have gotten the green light.
Estimated to cost $100 million, the new phase aims to blend the town’s traditional seaside architecture with a futuristic spin. It will include 5,000 sq ft of retail space, 215 rental units, eight luxury condominiums, and 529 parking spaces upon completion. The Long Branch Planning Board approved the plan late last year.
Applied Development of Hoboken, through its Pier Village II LLC affiliate, hired Minno & Wasko Architects & Planners of New Jersey to design the new development using inspiration from the town’s existing features.
For example, it took two existing landmarks, a star on top of the Sea Church and an old pier and amusement area, into consideration in the design. It altered a planned residential building in order to ensure that the church would still be visible from the town’s beach. The designers also worked within the footprint of an old beach club to plan a new restaurant and rooftop pool.
Next, the architects designed what the town hopes will be its third landmark, a four-story structure located on the corner of Laird Street and Ocean Boulevard. This centerpiece will be adorned with modern glass and metal panels and aluminum sunshades. It will also be topped with a giant video screen used for light shows and to broadcast images.
Construction of Pier Village II is scheduled to begin this fall using AJD Construction of Leonardo, N.J. in Monmouth County. The project is expected to take two years to build.
Millions of Tiles for Façade Design
Construction will start this spring on a unique undulating façade for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum expansion in New York.
Designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects of New York, the $46 million project involves construction of a two-story 51,000-sq-ft cantilevered addition. The design includes a playful twist in the form of an undulating façade covered with 8 million 1-sq-in yellow tiles and porthole windows.
The façade’s design required computer-assisted millworking to build 540 unique plywood fins, each with a different curved shape. The fins and purlins were installed last fall by Skanska USA Building of Parsippany, N.J.
In the spring, the latticework will be covered with lath and paper, followed by the mortar for the yellow tiles.
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