Rockefeller Arts Center SUNY Fredonia Building, NY Design Images
Rockefeller Arts Center at SUNY Fredonia
New York State University Building, NY, USA – design by Deborah Berke Partners
Aug 11, 2018
Rockefeller Arts Center at SUNY Fredonia
Design: Deborah Berke Partners Architects
Location: Fredonia, Chautauqua County, New York, United States
Rockefeller Arts Center at SUNY Fredonia
The New York?s State University Construction Fund hired architects Deborah Berke Partners to design a significant addition to and a dramatic reconceiving of a 1968 I.M. Pei arts complex on the State University of New York?s Fredonia campus.

Photos: Chris Cooper
Deborah Berke Partners Architects created a linear addition at the west façade, allowing the former back and service side of the building to become the new primary entrance.
This strengthens the building?s connection to the campus and reinforces the role of the arts at the institution. Our design respects the austerity of our Pritzker Prize-winning predecessor?s building but uses a strategy of subtle contrast to update it to meet contemporary needs.

The architects inverted the existing material language of long concrete walls by employing a palette of zinc metal and glass walls with accents of concrete details. Metal fins provide sun shading and add texture and depth to the facades. Recognizing the history of cast-in-place concrete construction on campus, we worked with local contractors to develop distinctive board forms with di...