On the sprawling SUNY Purchase College campus, the new Center for Media, Film, and Theatre (CMFT) promotes an identity for the programs it contains and facilitates their interdisciplinary educational mission. Simultaneously, the project juxtaposes itself with the campus’s mid-century building vocabulary while remaining sensitive to the original masterplan. Opened for the fall 2019 semester, this dynamic addition / renovation project celebrates arrival to campus, integrates the public and academic realms and fosters community, creativity, and collaboration.

Through weaving of building and landscape, an entry pavilion and courtyard create an arrival point to the concourse level and gateway to the plaza. The expansive concourse level occupies previously underutilized space beneath the plaza to house new exhibition areas, performance spaces, a screening room, and fabrication labs. The courtyard features a grand stair to the plaza and terraced seating that transform the courtyard into an amphitheater and gathering space.

From the plaza level, the CMFT’s three-story volume juxtaposes itself against the adjacent Performing Arts Center (PAC) and surrounding campus buildings through distinctions such as solid / permeable, heavy / light, and opaque / translucent. A tri-color fiber cement rainscreen system with punched windows plays against the campus’s uniform brick cladding. A corrugated, perforated metal scrim overlays the entire rainscreen to add lightness and transparency.

Glass curtainwalls and a skylit roof between the CMFT and PAC transform a previously exterior wall into a triple-height interior feature, highlighting the link between new and existing architecture. This open lobby serves as a mixing chamber with visual and physical connections between spaces and floors. Flexible double-height performance spaces including a black box theater, sound stage and studios are arranged within the CMFT’s volume. Classrooms and labs are woven around the performances spaces to create an integrated and dynamic facility.