Joseph D. Jamail Lecture Hall by LTL Architects

For this important lecture space in McKim, Mead and White’s historic Pulitzer Hall at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, the LTL Architects’ design was intentionally developed to have a dual personality. To accommodate the broad range of functions required, from lectures to classes to film screenings, the plan is open to multiple configurations via a series of mobile furniture components, including a transformable stage and a moving storage wall.

Image © Michael Moran

On the ground floor, the space is defined by a patterned dark wood floor that reflects traces of the room’s original coffered ceiling and beam work. By contrast, the renovated ceiling is highly articulated; developed as a contour of performance, with custom panels that provide for lighting, mechanical systems, speakers, and acoustics. The shape of the ceiling is adjusted to allow for views to the monumental windows and extends to surface the mezzanine at the back of the space, referencing the form of classical coffers while adapting to contemporary requirements.

Image © Michael Moran

The project engages the need to imaginatively transform historic facilities to accommodate contemporary educational requirements, creating a space that both acknowledges and reinvents it’s past. While the floor reflects the building’s original architecture and materiality, it also acts as a kind of game board for new forms of collectivity and collaboration.

Image © Michael Moran

The custom ceiling deploys digital fabrication techniques to translate the historical architecture of the coffer into a complex functional surface, formed from recycled acoustical felt modules and shaped to incorporate all of the spaces technical systems, from diffusers to a large scale cinematic projector. Designed to replace a generic flat hung ceiling installed during a previous renovation, the new ceiling is suspended using the previous ceiling’s substructure, negotiating economic,constructional and functional demands while creating a new architectural identity for this important public space within the University.

Image © Michael Moran

Image © Michael Moran

Facts
Design: LTL Architects
Location: Columbia University, New York, NY
Area: 2,750 sq ft
Year: 2017
Project team: Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, David Lewis; Michael Schissel, Sonia Flamberg, Ivan Farr
Lighting: Buro Happold
Structural: Silman
MEP: Loring Engineering
Acoustics: Sextant Group
AV: edu tek ltd.
Cost Estimating: Faithful + Gould
Code: J. Callahan Consulting, Inc.
General Contractor: Central Consulting and Contracting
Ceiling Fabrication: SITU
Photography: Michael Moran