Paul Lewis of LTL Architects | Carnegie Mellon University Residence & Academic Hub in Pittsburgh | Designing for Education
Courtesy of LTL Architects
Designing for Education
In today’s episode, I am joined by Paul Lewis, FIAI, Principal at LTL Architects based in New York City. He shares with us his experience of working on projects for universities across the United States, from NYU to the University of Wyoming. Additionally, we learn more about his project working on the Carnegie Mellon University Residence & Academic Hub Project. Recently, he was awarded the prestigious Rome Prize, the Emerging Voices Award and the Young Architects Award.
As a 265 bed residence hall, the Carnegie Mellon University Residence & Academic Hub Project, aims to improve the quality of student life by providing an open space for social interaction as well as fostering an environment for wellness and play. Paul shares with us his experience working on this project, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To add on to his impressive list of professional experience, he also works with students to develop environmentally sensitive and sustainable projects as the Professor and Associate Dean at Princeton University School of Architecture. In today’s episode, we learn more about Paul’s experience as a designer and educator, how virtual learning and quarantine measures are shaping the design of student dormitories, as well as the challenge of building a university building off-campus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Certainly one of the things that we believed in which came about as a result of about 10 or 15 years of working with residence halls is that there were certain sizes of a hallway that just worked better. Like if you got to be too large, it became too anonymous and you started to lose the social kind of glue that constituted your life on the hall. On the other hand, if it became too small, you felt isolated. There was no one around what’s going on. You always sensed that you were not in the right place. So then also the other key issue we’ve come to realize that the architectural design is really framing a series of nested relationships. So all of those sequences, those kind of ways in which you can develop a kind of sense privacy, but also be connected to a collective, have to constantly be refined and looking for as much overlap within there as possible.”
Courtesy of LTL Architects
About Paul Lewis
Paul is a founding partner of the amazing design firm, LTL Architects, and for his work is a winner of the prestigious Rome Prize, the Emerging Voices Award and the Young Architects Award. Besides his work as a designer, he is a professor of architecture at his alma mater, Princeton University, and was recently named an Associate Dean. With the ample free time he has, he also serves as the President of the Architectural League of New York. We will be talking about his Carnegie Mellon University Residence & Academic Hub Project.
Courtesy of LTL Architects
Courtesy of LTL Architects
Episode Timestamps
5:50 – You're a professor at Princeton’s School of Architecture. Why do you spend time teaching? And do you feel it makes you a better architect?
8:54 – The project that we are discussing today is in Pittsburgh, in the Oakland neighborhood. Tell us more about the area and the peculiarities of the site itself.
11:53 – The project was bid out using a RFQ, or a request for qualifications process. What did this particularly entail and how did you structure your winning?
14:28 – You've done projects for universities all across the United States, from NYU to the University of Wyoming. What are some of the lessons that you've learned in those projects that informed your design process?
18:37 – Describe for our listeners what they would see as they walk through this project as completed from the outside, say perhaps the interiors up to where a student would go to their rooms.
24:00 – What are some common town and gown issues that you've seen on projects? And what are good ways to mitigate those issues?
32:29 – Talk to us about how you approach the lighting and shadow issues in the design of this project.
34:17 – Talk to us about the materials used for this project.
36:58 – So could you share with us some of the conversations that are happening at your firm about how dormitories will look in the future?
Connect with Paul Lewis:
LinkedIn (Paul Lewis)
LinkedIn (LTL Architects)
LTL Architects
Courtesy of LTL Architects
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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