Vassar College Bridge For Laboratory Sciences (Lighting Design)
Vassar College Bridge for Laboratory Sciences (Lighting Design)
Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design
PHOTOS
Richard Barnes (8), Karl Rabe/Vassar College (1)
STATUS
Built
AREA
25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft
YEAR
2016
LOCATION
Poughkeepsie, NY, United States
TYPE
Educational › University
The Bridge for Laboratory Sciences Building at Vassar College, part of the school’s new Integrated Science Commons, consolidates numerous fields of study under one roof. The project is designed for LEED Silver certification.
The lighting achieves the major design objective of integrating the new facility into the campus landscape by accentuating the building’s natural materials and gestures.
An illuminated handrail floats the main entrance, which seems to rise up out of the wetlands, and floodlighting of the exterior wall provides continuity between the inside and the outside.
In addition, lighting from the interior silhouettes the building’s tapered vertical elements, to evoke birch trees.
The 400′ long building is gently curved, to respond to its site.
On the interior, the lighting designers used a variety of techniques – fixture choices, layouts and architectural detailing – to subtly reinforce the building’s sweeping form.
By highlighting the natural materials and emphasizing transparency, the lighting blends the building into its landscaped setting.
