IKM Inc.
Physical Plant Building
photograph (ca. 1988)
Physical Plant Building
IKM Inc.
(Pittsburgh)
1987-1988
The public role of the Physical Plant Building is to link the old Carnegie
Tech campus and a portion of the campus (Hamburg and Smith Halls and attendant
structures) acquired from the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Though Hornbostel himself
once conceived a building to serve this same end, CRS Sirrine's Junction
Hollow Planning Study determined the placement of the new building. The
Physical Plant Building both fills and bridges the mouth of the ravine that
rises from Junction Hollow into the campus. A public passageway enables
pedestrian transit through the site without entry into the building, though
the final link of this passage--a bridge connecting an upper-level terrace to
the hillside at the west end of Wean Hall--remains unbuilt.
The building is a complex whole comprised of differentiated parts. The main
axis shifts from east-west on the lower stories to north-south on the upper
stories. The massing breaks apart both below--in a drive-through passage and a
garage, and above--as the cooling tower of a chiller facility breaks free from
the rest of the mass. Stairs, walkways, and a gable of steel openwork further
break down the bulk of the building.
The building's earth-tone palette, round-arched openings, and metal roofs
respond to the surrounding Hornbostel buildings. The cooling tower is a
restatement of the Hamerschlag Hall tower that hovers above. Both are visual
focal points and functional mechanical devices.
August 13, 1997 -- http://www.library.cmu.edu/Research/ArchArch/ACampusRenewed/PhyPlant.html
Martin Aurand, Architecture Librarian and Archivist, ma1f@andrew.cmu.edu
Index of Exhibits
A Campus Renewed