Architects complete master plan for Queens college.

Graf & Lewent Architects (GLA) recently completed a design concept master plan for Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology.

Located at 86-01 23rd Avenue in East Elmhurst near LaGuardia Airport in New York City, Vaughn College offers bachelor and associate degrees in engineering technology, management and aviation to approximately 1,300 students.

GLA's project entailed a comprehensive architectural programming and planning review with preliminary design for the renovation and construction of campus facilities, including conceptual planning for a new 200-student residence hall. The GLA Master Plan provides the College with the necessary blueprint for achieving its expanding academic mission in the years to come.

Extremely well experienced in both aviation and higher education projects, GLA was the perfect design team choice for the special technical challenges presented by the unique institution formerly known as the College of Aeronautics.

The GLA effort included a complete programming and planning assessment of current and future college functions and facilities requirements. Encompassing conceptual design for the entire campus, the project incorporated plans for the renovation of approximately 105,000 square feet of existing space, as well as developing new uses, and circulation for the surrounding open space.

"Graf & Lewent has been a true partner with Vaughn College throughout the Master Plan process," noted Robert Waldmann, Vice President of Finance and Business Services for the College. "They really listened to what we wanted for the campus, in terms of style, function and budget, and then turned our vision into reality with a practical plan to accomplish it. We regard Graf & Lewent as a valuable partner in achieving our goals to expand and develop the College."

The Master Plan is the most recent in a series of projects GLA has completed for the College. Previous projects include renovation of the College's executive offices and the redesign and integration of the enrollment offices into a complete suite.

The core of GLA's Master Plan effort was design concepts for the College's proposed major additions: a new Library/Community Resource Center, Conference Center .and Student Center, located at the heart of the main building. GLA capitalized on this new campus focal point and designed a sky lit "Quad" space at the junction of the major new facilities, and the crossroads of the circulation in the College building.

Beyond just making space for the expanded facilities, GLA took the opportunity to recast the organization of the building as a natural extension of the major additions the College was planning.

Vaughn College posed the GLA team with some unique challenges. "A major consideration," according to Steve Lewent, AIA, one of the principals for the architecture firm and the project team leader, "was the integration of two very disparate existing campus building design styles. The College building exhibited a 'split personality,' with the original portion of the building in a '1930's Industrial' style, which has been mated with a recently added '1990's Airport High-Tech,' extension. Trying to create an aesthetic bridge between these two starkly different sections of the building was extremely challenging. By incorporating design cues from both buildings, we succeeded in creating a 'hinge' structure that links the two building sections without making one or the other look out of place."

Besides creating a unified building exterior/interior style, the GLA team programmed all school functions and reorganized the campus layout to integrate the existing and planned academic instruction, student life and administrative areas into one interconnected community. The exterior spaces were also redesigned to enhance and increase green space and accommodate the College's instructional aircraft.

The GLA team included in the Master Plan a preliminary phased construction plan to facilitate continued institutional operations during the proposed multi-year construction cycle. Vaughn College is planning a 5-year, approximately $20 million, development effort starting in 2006.