Shift Building

Project Team: Greg Bugel, Molly Calvani, Sarah Carpenter, Brittany Drapac + Michi Ushio

Columbia University GSAPP: Architectural Technology IV / J. Hibbs + Jason Stone

Date: Jan. 2010-May 2010

Site: Flat open field in the Bronx, New York, NY

Program: Light industrial artist lofts

Size: 138,000 square feet

Occupancy: 1,300 people

Working with structural and mechanical engineers throughout the design process, this project embraces the notion of improved design through the integration of formal and technical systems. Instead of using additive devices to improve its efficiency, the building’s inherent shape self-shades by leaning twenty-four degrees to the south, lending itself to a northern exposure. The glass facade incorporates three trombe walls that feed directly back to the cores. The trombe wall system is fed by a fresh air intake through the main core that is diffused into the trombe wall cavity from below. The air is then heated in the glass air cavity with oxidized steel backing and fed back into the building’s mechanical system.

The extreme structural demands of the building’s massing are expressed through a glass and steel facade. The design plays on the remnants of a building pre- and post-shift, as if a straight building were nudged into an incline. This shift is expressed through the visual juxtaposition of angled and straight columns on the east and west facades, the grid’s transferral and rhythm of mullions. The building’s vertical movement impacts the floor heights as well, with an implied tighter curvature as the facade bends.