SOM still to expand
America’s economy just entered a recession, but Yale’s School of Management is still getting its new campus.
Plans for the roughly 246,000-square-foot complex were unveiled to the News and members of the SOM community this week, just over a year after Foster + Partners, the architectural firm of Lord Norman Foster ARC ’62, was commissioned for the project. The new campus will be built at the intersection of Sachem Street and Whitney Avenue, and, officials hope, it will be completed by the fall of 2011.
Foster’s design is strikingly modern, yet the courtyard within the...
I commend Yale SOM on a very forward thinking design for their new school. When other constituencies in the Yale community have leaned toward a more historicist approach, SOM has challenged the entire Yale community to look forward and build a campus of the future and frankly of its time.
The existing som complex was suitable at best for jellyfish, what w/ the maze of halls. but it had its own mystique, one which was charming to those in the inside.
It doesn't look very Yale... While modern is a good image to achieve, it will have a hard time matching the rest of the buildings on the block.
Well, Randy Wilmot, which is it? "Of the future" or "of its time"? What's that "very forward thinking design" that's looks so much a stew from the last 70 years? If it's "of its time" it will likely date quickly. And if it's "of the future" it'll date even quicker -- just like "Futureland" and "The Jetsons".
I suggest a better model might be along the lines of, say, Chatworth -- frankly of its time, and Timeless as well.
I don't see how this building is that great, SOM should build something akin to the Law School.
Like the Law School ... Because nothing says creativity and intellectual ambition like fake medieval architecture...
I don't see why they can't build it out of banana leaves. Thatch is very cost-efficient, and the walls could be hail baileven if it does have to be repaired quarterly.
And if this didn't work out, we could just get rid of SOM, and thus rid ourselves of the capitalist minions who while speaking progressive-ese, do the bidding of the evil capitalist overloads as they break the backs of the working class.
Nothing says doublespeak like replacing SOBs with SOMs. I mean, you can't even blame the students. It's the evil capitalist overloads who have changed the name in order to co-opt the do-gooders of the world.
SOBs.
To the anonymous 'By The Contrarian' I won't try to convert your architectural preference. You make yourself very clear in just your name.
To those who are somewhat intrigued by what Foster is trying to achieve within a modern language I would direct you to an excellent article by Witold Rybczynski in the Wall Street Journal called: When Buildings Try Too Hard
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122731149503149341.html Rybczynski shows us how good architecture can be modern and yes 'of their time.' From the small number of images of the new SOM school it is still too early to say whether Foster will achieve what Rybczynski calls 'good architecture', but I do beleive Yale SOM should be applauded for supporting and challenging Foster to do just that; you only need to go to the Standford Business School's website and see the weak and 'watered-down' historicist design for their new school. Kudos to Yale for being a leader in practicing what they teach.
Pedestrian crossings and bike facilities on Whitney need to be seriously improved, so that students aren't killed as they walk or bike to their beautiful new building. In other words, I hope Yale is looking at the bigger picture.