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Project Portfolio – January 2006

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Architecture and Art Building,
Prairie View A&M University

Prairie View, Tex.
RoTo Architects / HKS

Teaching by example, RoTo raises brickwork to imaginative new levels with the Architecture and Art Building at Prairie View A&M in Texas

	Photo © Farshid Assassi

By Sarah Amelar

At first, we were afraid to ask the brick what it wanted to be,” says Michael Rotondi, FAIA, of his design for the Architecture and Art Building at Texas’s Prairie View A&M University. “What if it still wanted to be an arch? But then the answer came: It wanted to dance.” So, Rotondi; his partner, Clark Stevens, AIA; and their firm, Roto, experimented with the material, creating a sheathing, with great rhythmic pleats and gaping flaps, that billows like a huge, windblown garment.

Though Rotondi considered various partis, he settled on a long configuration with a central space and linear arrangement of studios—a diagram that had proved successful in SCI-Arc’s latest incarnation. Prairie View initially offered him a site buried at the back of the campus, but Rotondi convinced the university president to place the building as a gateway to the school.

As realized (in conjunction with HKS), the three-story, 450-foot-long, concrete-framed structure presents its most eclectic face on its south, or entry, side. Here, a curving shell of brick wraps the cultural center, at the building’s west end, while a brise-soleil of painted, perforated steel veils glazed architecture studios to the east. Though this elevation offers the project’s most collaged and even disjointed composition, the contrasting materials and forms effectively distinguish among the functions within. And the sunscreen, dipping toward the ground, mediates between the prairie grasses in front of the building and the campus behind it, while alluding to a shady Southern front porch.

As if entering a truly lived-in home, students typically access the building not from its formal street approach, but from the back, or campus, side to the north, where an ancient oak tree commands an entry courtyard. Here, on the north face, the brickwork becomes extraordinary. Using old-fashioned, wire-cut clay bricks, instead of the more artificial-looking versions that clad the surrounding buildings, Roto inventively explored corbeling, displaying a jubilant range of possibilities in full view of the students. The skin, with mortar matching the deep orange bricks, wraps the cylindrical auditorium like taut fabric, flaring out toward the base. Like a monumental flap swaying in the breeze, a wall of brick opens from the drum, creating an interstitial space, where stairs spill out from the theater.

Want the full story? Read the entire article in our January 2006 issue.
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the People

Owner
Texas A&M University System, Facilities Planning and Construction Department, Planning Division

Theo Rouse, Director, Facilities Construction Division; Gary Kent, Construction Supervisor; Jon Hall, Project Manager; Alice MacFarlane, Project Manager

Client
School of Architecture, Prairie View A&M University

Dr. Ikhlas Sabouni, Dean; Dr. George Wright, President

Architect
RoTo Architects, Inc
600 Moulton Ave. #405
Los Angeles, CA 90031
p (323)226-1112
f (323)226-1105
www.rotoark.com

Principals:
Michael Rotondi, FAIA & Clark Stevens, AIA, APA

Project architect:
Tom Perkins

Project Team:
Jim Bassett, Alyssa Holmquist, Devin McConkey, Sergio Ortiz, Otoniel Solis, Jack Nyman, John Lessl

Architect
HKS, Inc
1919 McKinney Ave.
Dallas, TX 76201
www.hksinc.com

Principal:
Jess Corrigan, AIA

Project manager:
Tom Holt

Project architect:
Gerald Ward

Construction adminstration manager:
Johnny Luttrell

Project team:
Robert Taylor, Jou Jou Wang

Interior designer
RoTo Architects, Inc. w/ Eve Persons, Texas A&M University, Facilities Planning

Engineer(s)
M/E/P:
Bovay Engineers www.bovayengineers.com

Civil/Structural:
Walter P. Moore www.walterpmoore.com

Consultat(s)
Colors, Finishes:
April Greiman, Made In Space
www.madeinspace.la

Landscape:
Cay Cooke, ASLA

Lighting:
RoTo Architects, Inc.

Acoustical:
Randall-Joiner Consulting

General Contractor
Bartlett Cocke, L.P.
Gary Nazaruk, project manager

Photographer
Assassi Productions
PO Box 36511121
Santa Barbara, CA 93130
p (805)682-2158
assassi@assassi.com

David Guthrie
Willard Street
Houston, TX 77006
(713)529-3691
davguth@rice.edu

Renderer(s)
RoTo Architects, Inc.

CAD system, project management, or other software used
ArchiCAD www.graphisoft.com, FormZ www.formz.com, AutoCAD www.autodesk.com

the Products

Structural System
Cast-In-Place Concrete

Exterior Cladding
Masonry:
Brick - Acme Brick www.brick.com

Perforated Structural Steel Deck, Sun Screen Structural Steel Deck:
Epic Metals www.epicmetals.com

Exterior Stainless Steel Handrails:
Hoffa, Inc.
4106 Campbell
Houston, TX 77080
Phone: 713-460-9000
Fax: 713-460-9033
www.empiresteeltx.com

Interior & Exterior Steel Pipes, Sun Screen Structure:
Beck Steel www.becksteel.com

Glazing
Glass:
VE2-2M Solarscreen 2000 - Viracon www.viracon.com

Doors
Vertical Bi-Fold Doors:
Wilson Doors, Inc. www.wilsondoors.com

Roller Shades:
MechoShade www.mechoshade.com

Interior Finishes
Carpet Tile:
transformations by Interface Flooring Company www.interfaceflooring.com

Flooring:
Stained Concrete Floors- L.M. Scofield Company, Lithochrome Chemstain www.scofield.com

Terrazzo:
Thin-Set - National Terrazzo Tile & Marble, Houston www.nationalterrazzo.com

Furnishings
Auditorium Seating:
Theater Solutions, Inc., Quakertown, PA www.theatersolutions.com

Elevator
Schindler Elevator Corporation, Houston www.schindler.com

Other
Ornamental Metal Handrails and Railings:
Stainless Steel Cable Mesh - Jakob Net

Stainless Steel Coil Drapery, used in Presentation Theater:
Cascade Coil Drapery, Inc. www.cascadecoil.com

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