The project was designed by Austrian architect
Wolfgang Tschapeller, lead of Vienna-based architecture firm
Wolfgang Tschapeller and a graduate of Cornell’s master’s in architecture program. Alongside New York City studio STV (with a team led by Harris Feinn, the architect-of-record), Tscahpeller completely revamped the interior of the historic Rand Hall, a three-story, steel-and-masonry structure primarily used for printing and, in more recent decades, as architecture studios.
Housing a circulating collections of fine art and design materials, the library aims to create space for the physical artifact as a durable and irreplaceable academic and creative resource in the visual arts and design disciplines.
The new library is four levels of massed stacks with shelves of books suspended as a centerpiece. The collection is surrounded by new spaces for research, computing, and instruction as well as a reading and study space.
“I think what’s extraordinary about this building is that it will house both a library and a fabrication facility. The production of new knowledge, ranging from scholarship to research and fabrication and making, tying those activities together as all forms of new knowledge is exciting.”
J. Meejin Yoon, Dean of Cornell AAP.
As Cornell explains, free of walls, the transparency across and between levels provides visitors multiple overlapping views across interior spaces and outward to the natural surroundings. Rand Hall is located at a prominent point of entry to Cornell's campus, marking its northern gateway. The 108-year-old industrial building includes a new rooftop deck outfitted with baseplates for the display of temporary experimental structures created by students and faculty.
“This building has an amazing history. Rand Hall is an early example of adaptive reuse for many different programs. From industrial purposes to engineering and architecture programs and now as a fine arts library above a state-of-the-art fabrication facility. It represents the full spectrum of media and material coming together.”
J. Meejin Yoon
The ground floor of Rand Hall is a new fabrication shop including digital fabrication shops, a maker space, a research lab, and small-tool repository.
“On the first floor an energetic fabrication space filled with machines, and on the second floor a silent and clean space where more than 100,000 volumes of books are hung between earth and the skies."
Wolfgang Tschapeller
