QUEENS COLLEGE STUDENT UNION

Location: Flushing, New York
Architect & Designer: George Ranalli
Project Architect: Mark Dixon
Project Team: Price Harrison, Fran Leadon

Since 1971, the Queens College Student Union, including student government, clubs, dining hall, and recreational facilities, has been accommodated with some difficulty in a 184,000 sq. ft., poorly designed neo-Brutalist building that is both oppressively ugly and isolated from the main campus. We were asked to remedy these problems with a landscape design and a 42,000 sq. ft. addition.

The twin goals of the landscape design were to reconnect the Student Union complex with the rest of the campus, and convert the area to the east of the existing Student Union building into a garden park for quiet recreation. To this end, the area around the new and existing buildings was made into three interconnecting courts, each paved with slate. The first of these, the Student Union Court, connects to the main campus Quadrangle with a stair and ramp, and has a large fountain visible from the new cafe. The second, the Entrance Court, is placed on axis with the route to Jefferson and Kiley Halls, and is fronted on the west and south by the entrances to the new and existing buildings. The Garden Court contains another fountain surrounded by existing trees, and new planting: a grove of maple trees, surrounded by benches where students and faculty can eat lunch, talk, read and stroll. At the east edge of the Garden Court a stair and ramp connect the campus to Kissena Boulevard. The renovation of the existing building involves complete programmatic changes to several floors and architectural finishes to several others. All the work will conclude with an extensive transformation of this facility into a new interior environment.

The new addition expands existing cafe facilities, creates 12 large rooms for seminars and conferences, and makes a new 444-seat theater for lectures, recitals and performances. The new building occupies a site adjacent to the existing Student Union building, currently a parking lot, which is also the roof of the existing basement. The existing basement is connected to the new building by stair and elevator. The north end of the basement retains its existing functions, but is now a double-height space with a large window. The new building is designed in limestone with an intricate pattern of panels and fasteners. The upper part of the building is finished in copper with large raised blocks containing glass openings.