johnson museum of art - Monumental Form / Banal Systems I. M. Pei & Partners

| Anne Judkis | Josh Bransky | Blake Capalbo | Michael Lima |

Ithaca, NY 1968-1973

I.M. Pei’s Johnson Museum is located at the terminus of the Cornell campus in Ithaca NY. The building itself is composed of three formal parts; the entry zone, which acts as an “outdoor” space; the main tower, housing gallery and classroom space; and the horizontal gallery extension, which acts as both gallery and roof for the sculpture garden below. These moves are used to reinforce I.M. Pei’s desire to create a monumental form at the end of the campus that, from a distance, does not obstruct the views to the lake. The desire to have views to the lake creates two specific conditions. Firstly, there is the need to lift the building up at ground level to allow for views slightly closer to go through the lobby of the building. Secondly, once lifted, there needs to be a hole punched through the building to allow people farther away views of the lake. These two conditions create interesting spaces that act as exterior spaces, although they are inside the building. Also abiding to the semi transparent nature of this monolithic building there are strips of windows on the south, east, and west sides of the building.

Our contention for the project is that at large and small scale systems are fairly well integrated however at a medium scale form totally dominates systems and therefore create very strange conditions that are, in many ways, quite convoluted. We will show this through four major components of the project; structure, enclosure, passive systems, and mechanical systems.

When looking at the circulation and large scale systems you can see that they were a major driver of the form. Both are positioned in two particular parts of the building, the legs and the core (These are highlighted in pink to the left of this paragraph). These two major areas are also primary to the structure. The central circulation core contains all the circulation for the entire building (main stair, fire stair and elevators) except one leg which acts as a secondary fire stair. This emphasizes that at a large scale the form and systems are very integrated, and even at points the systems are almost a driver of form.

Due to the nature of concrete construction at a large scale either the enclosure works or it fails, badly. In the case of the Johnson Museum the enclosure works well as a thermal barrier (concrete as thermal mass), a rain screen (concrete effectively blocks moisture), and as a brise soleil.

At a medium scale enclosure is not as effective as at a large scale. The main reason for this is due to the fact that all of the glazing is single pane. Due to the single pane glass there are many issues with the building. After talking to the employees these issues include condensation, leaking, and heat loss. At the medium level there is also a fair amount of insulation which does work well, as additional thermal barrier in addition to the thermal mas of concrete.

At the small scale the enclosure details are very well integrated. Added into the pour are drip guards to prevent the transmission of moisture through the poorly installed single pane glass. The glass also has linear diffusers under it to, as best possible, prevent condensation and heat transfer. Additionally the condition where the building meets the ground is well insulated and waterproofed very effectively as it drains water quite far from the building.

The passive systems of the building are not as thought out as many of the other systems. Due to the form of the building there is a concrete brise soleil or a large overhang on all but one of the windows on the south, west, and east sides. The north side has no solar shading systems as it naturally gets the least about of sunlight. The windows on the east and west sides that span the height of the building have a more gradual shading system as the top floors are off-limits to the public and they work as office spaces with limited need for solar shading unlike the galleries below.

At an intermediate scale the passive systems are fairly poor due to the single pane windows that let a lot of cold air in the building. This is counter productive to the thermal barrier that is constructed with the concrete and insulation.

At the small scale there are not are passive systems. Bellow are passive elements that could have been taken into account

At the large scale of entire building systems, for the most part, the system is divided into two parts. There are 2 blowers that supply the top five floors and there are three blowers that supply the bottom four floors. The ducts on a large scale use the central column where the circulation is as primary means of distribution. Once branched off of these main columns the supply is in the ceiling and next to windows, with the return ducted into the hollow space between walls and floor slabs.

Although at a large scale there is room left over for the ducts and even spaces made to hide the blowers the loads were not pre-calculated and therefore there are some strange conditions within the building. The divide of upper and lower loads has a strange connection through a single duct due to uncalculated loads. Additionally once off of the main core the ducts are very tightly winding all over the ceiling plane and then covered with a drop down ceiling, this is partially due to the huge load on the machanical systems to make up for the lack of passive and enclosure systems.

As with much of the rest of the building he details of how it is made are expertly poured in the concrete. The doors have supply ducts to keep the entry to the museum temperate during the cold Ithaca winters. Additionally the casting of perfect angles in the ceiling allow for seamless integration of the supply into the ceiling while allowing the wall space that is cast to act as a neutral zone for stale return air.

This building, on the large scale, actually has its structure inform the form of the building. This piece of architecture is first and foremost an exploration in concrete construction. The form is based on the possibilities and limitations of concrete and rebar. Because the building is concrete it acts strongly in both lateral and compressive loads, with the help of rebar.

At an intermediate scale the form totally overpowers the structure. This is the scale of the human as well as the scale of the reenforcement of the horizontal gallery space. At the human scale the rebar is used to an utmost extent, it is consistent over the entire building, floors and walls (#6 rebar at 6” & 12” respectively). The density of the rebar is not scaled to specific parts of the building, this leaves to over reenforced parts of the building. In the reenforcement of the horizontal gallery the rebar is actually larger (#11 rebar) to hold the loads, one of the few places in the building where this is calculated rather than just evenly distributed. I this case, as with most buildings at an intermediate scale, the system of structure is used to help the form as much as possible.

At the smallest scale the rebar is totally integrated into the concrete as in any well built concrete building. The pours of each day were well calculated and therefore the details in other parts of construction are able to be executed very effectively.

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A. SYSTEMS DRIVING FORM B. FORM OVERPOWERS SYSTEMS C. FORM AND SYSTEMS ARE INTERLACED

Structure Large L Medium m Small s

encloSure Large L Medium m Small s

PaSSive Large L Medium m Small N/A

Mechanical Large L Medium m Small s

Main mass lifted from ground Main mass then punctured Denotes “exterior” space Formal Articulation of Systems

Formal Articulation of Views

CayugeLake

Location and Views

JohnsonMuseum

BeebeLake

S N

E

WShaded

Supply

Non-Shaded

Return

Exhaust

site Documentation

10

26

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106

144

168172

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87

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Ave Rainfall in mm

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

WC WC WC

WC

LAV LAV

Gravity and Lateral Loads

Single Chase connecting Zones 1 & 2

Lower Level 1 HVAC

Lower Return Ducts

Lower Supply Ducts

Upper Return Ducts

Upper Supply Ducts Return/Supply SystemDoor Supply Detail