Arthur Lubetz Associates
Field and Mobile Robotics Building
photograph (1996)
Field and Mobile Robotics Building
Arthur Lubetz Associates
(Pittsburgh)
1986-1989
The former powerhouse of the U.S. Bureau of Mines complex shares a plaza with
the Physical Plant Building. This plaza is the only realized element of a
sequence of plazas planned by CRS Sirrine's Junction Hollow study. A
rectilinear dumbbell in plan and massing, the building's walls are broken down
by round-arched openings and large rectilinear bays, one of which accommodates
a vehicular entrance. Roof level is at ground level on the north side, and
two tall smokestacks that formerly announced the building have been cut off.
Thus emasculated, it recedes into the ravine behind Hamburg and Smith Halls.
When Arthur Lubetz remodeled the building for the Robotics Institute he
created a central high-bay space for making and exercising robots, flanked by
multi-level cubes with offices and support facilities. He reset much of the
glazing in the large openings, and resurfaced the building with stucco,
establishing the walls as color planes, as is his wont. The color, however,
is a subdued gray (as opposed, say, to the red that might be expected of
Lubetz). The west entry is the only external indication that Lubetz was here.
Within an arched opening, two distinct grids of glazing abut and clash,
and a lime-green wedge bursts through the glass. This modest bit of drama
gives a small jolt to the prevailing quietude of the public realm.
August 13, 1997 -- http://www.library.cmu.edu/Research/ArchArch/ACampusRenewed/FMR.html
Martin Aurand, Architecture Librarian and Archivist, ma1f@andrew.cmu.edu
Index of Exhibits
A Campus Renewed