Manhattanville College, Harrison, NY, 2006

The design for Manhattanville encompasses the reclamation and restoration of a historic sanctuary as a greenhouse and the design of a new 1000 square foot environmental learning center, which creates a complex for students and highlights energy-efficient building practices. The objective of the project is to create an environment that responds to the dynamic conditions of the natural world- becoming a teaching tool to let students study and analyze the effects of passive solar building technologies as well as the effects of a living system that naturally purifies a nearby stream.

The restored chapel maintains an original weathered masonry shell, enclosed beneath a new transparent glass roof. The existing crypt is used to cool the temperature in the summer months while the glass roof traps heat in the fall and spring.

The new classroom building adjacent to the chapel sits as a backdrop to the architecture's water filtration pool. This "living machine" is an illustrative component of the building and site's ecological principles. The classroom structure utilizes a solar trom wall and a ground coupled heat exchange to warm the building. To further insulate the building in the winter, the structure's western and eastern walls shut down, leaving only the southern glass face to collect the day's heat.