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Originally Posted by eschaton
A new virtual planning commission is up for next week. Three new items, although two of them have gotten some coverage in local press before.
1. The plans for CMU's new Scaife Hall. This is a new five-story, 120,000 square foot building on the core of CMU's campus, which will entirely replace the existing, much smaller Scaife Hall. I have to say I find the overall design of the building totally uninspiring - possibly due to to the combination of the typical bland CMU color scheme of beige and silver, and the generic overall composition. Together it makes the building instantly look dated, and be particularly unimpressive in the views directly across the Neville Street chasm, where it's highly visible. I actually like the hardscaped plaza on the campus side however.
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Agreed. This design is a disappointment. While the building does not involve beige or yellow brick----the dark brown brick that clads the two-story, mostly underground podium seems bold for CMU---the multiple shades of metal sheeting seem sterile.
The university picked a respected Philly firm, Kieran Timberlake, but still managed to get an unexciting design.
https://kierantimberlake.com/
Among the plusses, the massing isn't bad---the building is twice the square footage of the existing Scaife Hall but the new building doesn't seem huge.
And there seems to be a lot more open space. I like the plaza as well, particularly how the new building nearly abuts Porter Hall to close in the eastern end of the open space.
With luck, the facade can be improved upon suggestion of the planning commission.