Prestigious NYC architecture firm to design SU’s Newhouse III

Prestigious NYC architecture firm to design SU’s Newhouse IIIFebruary 12, 2004Amy Schmitzaemehrin@syr.edu

On Feb. 9, David Rubin, dean of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, announced that the renowned New York City-based architecture firm Polshek Partnership Architects will undertake the design and construction of the Newhouse III building.

Construction will be funded through a $15 million grant from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, which was announced in April 2003. The gift is one of the largest private donations in SU’s history. Highlights of the expansion will include an executive education suite, a new media research center and two up-to-date newsrooms – one for students to practice Web reporting and one for traditional broadcast journalism.

“Polshek is a very high-profile firm with many well-known projects under their belts,” says Rubin. “They were drawn to SU because of the University’s mix of architecture and the flexibility permitted by SU’s thoughtful approach to its Space Plan. It is a challenge to design a building that ‘fits in’ with the rest of campus, as well as a building that adjoins two others and has a two-story slope. The design and building of Newhouse III is really considered a fun project.”

Polshek’s previous projects include the National Museum of the American Indian in Suitland, Md.; the Rose Center for Earth and Space in the American Museum of Natural History, New York; and Carnegie Hall in New York. They are currently working on the redesigned Newseum in Washington and the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark.

Construction of Newhouse III is expected to begin in Fall 2004 – the 40-year anniversary of the school’s opening – and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2006.