New Building (New York City, New York)

 university, movie / film / TV location, Modern (architecture)

240-foot, 14-story modernist education building completed in 2011. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the vertical campus houses 56 state-of-the-art classrooms, new cyber lounges and cutting edge science facilities. There are also 311 computer stations, and the signature spaces include Emergency Management and High Rise Simulator labs, conference and exhibit spaces, and a theater.

The main building mass is at the west end of the block. To the east, connecting with the older Haaren Hall, is a lower podium section that is topped by the Jay Walk, a football field-sized, rooftop campus green. The midblock structure has cascading stairways and amphitheater-style seating inside, housing the Gerald W. Lynch Theater. At the east end of the rooftop deck, a long sloping skylight extends from the west end of Haaren Hall. Countering it on the west side, a long, ramp-like set of steps descends from the center of the 5th floor of the 14-story tower's east facade out onto the lawn.

Fritted glass panels in varying shades of silver are arranged in a staggered pattern along the facades, while vertical fins, ranging in depth from 3 to 11 inches, are arranged in horizontal bands on all four sides of the building. These aluminum fins are finished with silver-speckled mica-flake paint on one side and are silk-screened with a varying pattern of red dots on the other. These two treatments on the fins create a dynamic visual effect depending on the direction from which one approaches the building. The entrance to the theater is at the east end of the podium, where the ground floor is deeply recessed. A wide set of dark-grey granite steps leads up to the six sets of glass double-doors set in a glass wall. There is silver metal cladding on either side of the doors (above a black granite water table), and along the overhanging roof of the floor above. To the west of the steps is a dark-grey stone wall fronting the sidewalk; to its right, as the street continues to slope downward to the west, another level begins as a new ground floor, clad in the same glass as the rest of the main facade. Above it, the (now) 2nd floor is still recessed, but not as far as it is to the east, where the theater entrances are located; it is faced here in green-tinted glass, fronted by steel lettering reading "JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE". The silver metal cladding of the recessed area's roof continues as a band across this section, angling slightly downward as it moves to the west, ending as the now three floors join together in a transition to the full curtain wall. Just to the east of where the main tower sprouts, the 3rd floor (the top floor of the podium) has a shallow recessed area of green glass, bordered in grey metal paneling. Below this, at the sidewalk level, begins a glass band of what will grow to become a lower level at the west end of the building. Just to the west of where the higher floors of the tower rises from the podium, the lower floor splits into two full floors (the bottom one still partially below grade), slightly recessed and clad in green-tinted glass that extends all the way to the west end. The far east end of this recessed lower section is clad in grey metal panels, and has a set of service doors.

There is a recessed gap at the 4th floor of the tower, covering almost the east half of the north facade, and wrapping around the corner to the east facade where it comprises the first floor above the podium deck; it is clad in green glass. This slightly recessed floor is interrupted by the top of the long staircase at the center of the east facade, and then continues, wrapping around the southeast corner as well for a short stretch along the south facade on 58th Street. A similar recessed "gash" begins near the west end at the 7th floor, continuing along more than half of the west facade.

The east facade facing onto the Jay Walk has its curtain wall divided into north and south parts by a central section above the stairs that is slightly recessed and clad in flat, green-tinted glass. The curtain wall of this section extends up to the top three floors, where it changes to grey metal panels.

The south side of the base, along 58th Street, features the regular cladding pattern of fritted glass and fins all the way to the east end, where there is a service door. A bit to the west is a recessed section at the 2nd floor (above a ground floor that is not yet full-height due to the slope of the site), framed in grey metal with the green glass version of curtain wall. Halfway across the podium, as the ground floor attains full height, there is another recessed section framed in grey metal panels, this one at the ground floor, with two sets of service doors and two large loading docks. Just to the west of this, almost to where the tower begins, the 3rd floor has a recessed area that matches the corresponding one on the north facade.

The west facade on the avenue has the upper floors overhanging the base, clad in green glass. The central main entrance is further recessed, with three sets of glass double-doors and three flagpoles in front of and to the south of them. Across the 3rd & 4th floors the glass has large white lettering spelling "JOHN JAY" with smaller letters to the south reading "COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE" and "CUNY". The overhanging upper floors, in the fritted glass and rib design, features the continuation of the "gash" from the north facade at the 7th floor, and at the center the 9th-14th floor are recessed, with the green glass curtain wall design.

The interior lobby was used as a filming location for S1E3 of the Starz Network original series "Power" as Ghost discusses legal liability.

www.jjay.cuny.edu/956.php
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