Bluestone adapts Cornell building to its environment
The building site was surrounded by fragile ecological conditions, causing developers to pay close attention to natural boundaries. The goal of this project was to create a building that was larger than the previous one, but manipulate the structure to appear smaller. “By creating a larger ground level and geometrically varying
roof slopes and curving walls simultaneously, the overall mass of the building was reduced,†said Technical Specialist Charles Maira of Hillier. “Making it a welcoming addition to its new habitat was important. Studies were done to find ways that the building would be least invasive. For example, zinc was selected for the primary roof material as the visible, sloping structure. The zinc was specifically chosen because it had no lead content and no traces of copper, making it environmentally friendly,†explained Maira. Caution was used in other elements of the environment in order to limit the intrusion of the new building on its new surroundings. “The environmental engineer supervised site construction during the project. Not only that, the amount of the land that was touched had to be replaced 200%,†said Maira.