Key to redesigning students home away from home.

When my firm was given the opportunity to propose services for our recently completed $8 million architectural redesign and renovation of International House, we were faced with redesigning the "home away from home" for more than 500 graduate students and interns from more than 100 countries.

And, we had to undertake and complete the job while they were all living there, at 500 Riverside Drive near 122nd Street in upper Manhattan in New York City.

Our work encompassed the redesign and renovation of a mix of 503 bedrooms, 10 corridors, 10 lobbies, 20 shared bathrooms and 20 new community lounges in a vintage 1924 ten-storey, H-shaped structure.

Our design process requires signoffs between phases and we found that we found that we couldn't get our ideas approved in phase one.

We provided a rich supply of concepts, but the criteria our clients were using changed from meeting to meeting. We had a serious professional problem.

That's when we decided to re-review the Institution's Mission Statement to see if the client's criteria might be contained within it.

Founded in 1924, International House describes itself as "the most culturally diverse community located within the most culturally diverse city in the world." Its Mission is "to enable selected graduate students and interns from countries around the world to live and learn together in a challenging and supportive residential community that builds life-long qualities of leadership, tolerance, respect and friendship among individuals of all nations and backgrounds." Its 6,500 alumni and alumnae include heads of state, Nobel Prize winners, journalists, authors, actors, opera stars, business executives and artists.

International House is unique among institutional or educational housing projects because of the diversity of its residents, who are 30% American, while the other 70% come from more than 100 other countries.

Within this diverse group, there are many different cultural and individual preferences for such things as colors, materials, acoustics, the room temperature for sleeping, the height of the bed (which can range from on-the-floor to two feet above the floor), to sunlight and lighting controls, where they shower, how they arrange furniture and how much and what type of storage space they require.

International House was intended to be a large community "house." Its public rooms were well-appointed and sized to accommodate and enhance students' social interaction and to provide venues for music, lectures, study and communal dining. The private bedrooms are small. Bathrooms are shared.

Because the institution didn't have the funds to meet the new trend for luxury studio-style student housing, our client told us that we couldn't take down any walls. We were limited to the original 1920's dormitory-style layout. The individual bedrooms were going to remain small, [7' 6" X 12' 6"], so they would have to be as well-designed as possible.

Our approach was, first, as always, to take seriously the client's constraints. We suppressed our own interests, as we have trained ourselves, started with a blank slate and listened. Next, in order to establish architectural criteria and do so within the client's limitations, we used as our conceptual guide the institution's Mission Statement.

To further inspire our thinking for the redesign of the bedrooms and to acknowledge that solutions to some of their problems already exist, we visited and carefully studied the design of several New York City boutique hotels, including the Hudson Hotel, the Flatotel and the W Hotel.

We then assembled a team that could work together to address the client's concerns, selecting people from our staff within the office as well as appropriate external contractors and consultants. What held this team together was creativity in design, planning and architectural problem-solving. Our team eliminated the older, institutional feel and introduced designs, themes and materials that set a fresh, other-than-institutional standard.

To test our concepts, we constructed two full-sized, differently designed bedroom mock-ups, which were actually lived in, so that we could get feedback, evaluate and modify our ideas to get the best possible final design solutions.

When we researched contractors, we carefully looked for one whose main credential was working in occupied spaces, not just the lowest bidder. In the end, we got both from our chosen contractor. As we moved forward, we scheduled work around the day-to-day needs of a fully occupied and lived-in facility. While graduate students studied during the day, we were also working on-site.

Some examples of the details of our overall work include:

(1) new, energy-efficient lighting fixtures with variable controls; (2) ceiling fans to reduce reliance on air conditioning and reduce electrical power loads; (3) bathroom tiles, lighting fixtures, improved mechanical exhaust and stylish over-mount sinks with "hands free" bathroom technology; (4) proportionately sized room furniture; (5) built-in book-shelves to take advantage of bedroom wall areas; (6) flooring, paint schemes and wainscot to provide character and identity on each floor as well as moldings that upgrade the look while concealing wires; (7) sound-resistant and fireproof doors with hotel-style universal card keys; (8) tech upgrades to provide enhanced telephone and Internet access to each bedroom; and, (9) provided new recycling and trash areas that are cleaner, and installed fire alarm upgrades and new electrical wiring.

For each of the 10 elevator landings, we designed a dramatic floor-to-ceiling numeral graphic, the backdrops of which become a lighter color on each progressively higher floor.

Our overall design successfully replaced the previous institutional design paradigm and did so within the client's budget.

Sometimes, the design off an educational or institutional facility needs re-thinking. Other times, the Mission Statement needs a fresh interpretation. For International House, we did both with an interior architectural design that will help this important institution continue to fulfill its mission, now and for decades to come.

BY STEVEN KRATCHMAN, AIA.

FOUNDER AND CEO, STEVEN

KRATCHMAN ARCHITECT, P.C.