Building up humanities: An inside look at Klarman Hall
By Kathy Hovis
Every day, around 100 workers gather inside the shell of Cornell’s new humanities building, Klarman Hall. They’re installing glass, affixing pre-cast concrete panels to the outer walls, connecting electricity and prepping the newly drywalled offices for the paint to come.
A trip to the construction site also offers a step back in time – you can view the well-built, four-foot foundation of Goldwin Smith Hall, which workers excavated and opened up in places to connect the building to Klarman through several passageways. Goldwin Smith was erected in 1904 with two-foot stone masonry walls that have held up well over time. The building stone removed during the Goldwin Smith renovation will be re-used in the construction.
“We have the original drawings of the building designed by the firm of Carrere & Hastings,” says Gary Wilhelm, project director at Cornell Infrastructure, Properties and Planning, as he gives a tour through the site. “It is interesting to note some of the drawings were drafted by William Lamb, who eventually was a partner in the architectural firm that designed the Empire State Building and the Olin Chemical Engineering building on campus.”
The new 67,500-square-foot Klarman Hall, set to open in January 2016, will include 124 spaces for offices and conferences rooms and a 330-seat auditorium, the largest on the Arts Quad.
“We currently project enough points to accomplish LEED Platinum certification,” Wilhelm says. The building’s six “green roofs” made of various plants and grasses and the insulated argon-filled translucent glass used for the atrium will reduce heating and cooling costs, while occupancy and daylight sensors reduce the demand for electric lighting.
Most windows throughout the building are operable and the mechanical design includes controls to take advantage of natural ventilation in the atrium, Wilhelm said.
What might be most pleasing to faculty and students who will occupy the building is the large, 7,700-square-foot, sunlight-filled atrium, which will include gathering spaces and an expanded café. That space is taking shape now.
“All of the steel has been installed,” Wilhelm said while showing off the atrium. “The glass for the skylights is on site and will be installed later this summer. All of the steel will be painted ‘incredible white’ (the paint color chosen by the architect).”
The building also includes many outside spaces for gathering and eating, on various levels around the building.
Crews have been working on the building from south to north, so the south end of the building is more enclosed now, while the north end is still open in places to bring in materials and bigger equipment, Wilhelm said.
When the building is completed in January, the departments of Romance Studies and Comparative Literature will move into the new space from their current locations in Morrill Hall and Goldwin Smith Hall. The Arts and Sciences admissions/advising office will occupy part of the atrium level and Arts and Sciences Career Services will move back into the former advising office on the first floor of Goldwin Smith from the temporary buildings between Lincoln and Goldwin Smith.
Kathy Hovis is a writer for the College of Arts Sciences.
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