The architectural team comprised of Davis Brody Bond and Kieran Timberlake has unveiled its newest updates on the design for 181 Mercer, a 735,000-square-foot complex for New York University that will replace a 35-year-old gym facility and become NYU?s largest classroom building, as well as a space for performing arts, athletics, and students and faculty housing. 

The architectural team comprised of Davis Brody Bond and Kieran Timberlake has unveiled its newest updates on the design for 181 Mercer, a 735,000-square-foot complex for New York University that will replace a 35-year-old gym facility and become NYU?s largest classroom building, as well as a space for performing arts, athletics, and students and faculty housing. 
© llustration: studioAMD

The design, which features a slimmer massing and 20% less gross square footage than permitted by the City approvals process, focuses on transparency, lightness, and connection, in an effort to contrast with the bunker-like character of its predecessor?Cole?s Sports Center?and to make Mercer Street itself more engaging.Through the addition of 60 new classrooms, 20 music instruction rooms, and a variety of study spaces, NYU will accommodate a growing need for properly sized and equipped academic spaces, thus allowing for other buildings to create more laboratories, as a part of a long-range effort to support the sciences.

Additionally, the space will feature t...