NK Recognized with three Design Awards by AIA Newark & Suburban Architects Chapter

We are proud to announce that NK Architects received three honors at the AIA Newark & Suburban Architects’ annual Design Awards:

HYNES HALL, SCHOOL OF BUSINESS & PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AT KEAN UNIVERSITY — SILVER MEDAL

NK Team: Steve Aluotto, Andrew Lewis, Robert Harker, Elizabeth Burke, Victor Angulo, Irene Cherevaty, Chris Aluotto, Mark von Bradsky, Jian Chen, Enhua Bai

Today’s students benefit from the omnipresence of technology, shared knowledge, social media networking, and near-constant communication independent from the limitations of their surroundings or backgrounds. These tools offer unique and revolutionary ways to learn and interact; they are disrupting traditional models of learning and pedagogy. Despite these changes, business students are spending an increasing amount of their time on campus and an overwhelming majority of their time in the business school building. The contemporary business school environment must enhance the social learning aspects that today’s students thrive in by providing increased spaces for collaboration, shared experiences, and support of their immediate learning communities.

Hynes Hall, Kean University’s new six-story, 95,000 square foot School of Business & Public Management brings the College of Business’ four schools together under one roof, along with the Office of the Dean and the Kean University Small Business Development Center. The new building prioritizes the student first, providing significant common spaces with dramatic multi-level connections to anchor each floor; giving the several thousand students attending class in the building’s variety of academic spaces with places to interact, collaborate, study, and relax throughout the day. Highly transparent spaces throughout the building visually connect academic departments, learning spaces, and the active common areas that support them. The sixth floor is fully dedicated to an open virtual library and learning commons with access to roof terraces, planted roofs, and panoramic views of the campus and the New York City skyline beyond.

LIBERTY HALL ACADEMIC CENTER AT KEAN UNIVERSITY — SILVER MEDAL

NK Team: Steve Aluotto, Andrew Lewis, Elizabeth Burke, Chris Aluotto, Victor Angulo, Irene Cherevaty, Ralph Rosenberg, Mark von Bradsky

Liberty Hall Academic Center, at Kean University, is designed to provide a contemporary environment in which to teach, study, and celebrate history in close proximity to the substantial historical significance of its namesake, and neighbor, Liberty Hall Museum.

The new academic center is sited to have a formal, axial relationship with the museum and its landscape plan. Exterior building materials, massing, and forms have been designed to be complimentary to the historic nature of the agrarian site and structures. While inside, the building is a delicate balance of clean, contemporary design with nods to the site’s agrarian past.

The museum and its grounds serve as the focal point through the new academic center’s expanses of glazing and controlled views, allowing occupants to experience a sense of history by connecting with the secluded, and preserved, rural oasis within highly developed Union county. Modern spaces for research, teaching, archiving, preservation, gallery display, and a flexible exhibit hall have been organized to allow for dynamic views back towards the museum, allowing the users to connect with the historic site and to be within its context during all activities.

SAG HARBOR CINEMA — MERIT AWARD

NK Team: Allen Kopelson, Adrian Allen, David Kimzey, Elizabeth Burke

For over a century, the Sag Harbor Cinema has been a landmark in the lively and culturally diverse Main Street district of Sag Harbor, NY. Since the 1930’s, an iconic neon sign has beckoned moviegoers to the cinema structure designed by Architect John Eberson, an accomplished designer of notable atmospheric theaters in the Art Deco style. In December of 2016, an early-morning fire devastated the historic Sag Harbor Cinema, destroying the majority of the structure.

From the ashes, a true community-driven partnership developed to build the cinema anew, balancing modern programs and needs while preserving the cinema’s legacy by respecting its iconic streetscape, restoring period elements salvaged in the fire, and by enhancing the cinema’s impact within its community.

The remnants of the one-story, 468-seat theater, which had been one of the few single-screen art-house cinemas left in the country, was redesigned as three unique theaters for serving a variety of uses. The new front façade honors the historic Eberson-design and preserves its complimentary scale on Main Street. Set back from Main Street, a new three-story structure containing common areas, amenity spaces, bar/lounges, educational spaces, art and display galleries, multiple roof terraces, and concessions, provides ample, and accessible, space for the community to gather and interact.

Allen Kopelson, Founding Principal of NK Architects and long-time Sag Harbor resident, notes that “the new, state-of-the-art cinematheque successfully revives the spirit of the old cinema, while providing the community with a contemporary, yet familiar, theater and educational center” which still beckons from behind its glowing neon sign on Main Street.

Congratulations to our teams, collaborators, and outstanding clients on these noteworthy projects!