SCAD Student Center Reprogramming
Overview
Site plan of the structure with surrounding structures
The following project is a proposal for readapting the space of the SCAD Student Center, in line with issues raised by the student body as well as certain faculty members. The building itself sits on the intersections of Montgomery Street, West State Street, and West Broughton Lane. The front façade historic structure of the site were initially constructed as the synagogue and community place for Savannah's Orthodox Jewish congregation, Bnai Brith Jacob. Bnai Brith Jacob later moved to the south side of Savannah, acquiring a larger structure for their growing congregation. The structure was sold to a Christian congregation and used as a church until it fell into disuse in the 1970s. It was later acquired by SCAD and turned into the SCAD Student Center.
Throughout the 2010s the building was utilized as a student meeting place, with an open venue space for club meetings and events. In 2019 the building became the permanent meeting place of the SCAD Esports Team.
The Issue
The SCAD Student Center is a multi-use structure that suffers from incompatible uses. The intent and purpose of the structure is to serve as a recreational facility and a meeting place for student services such as the Student Forum and the Inter-Club Council. There is generally a conflict of activities in the space, causing noise complaints from both those partaking in esports competitions and those utilizing the academic spaces. There is also a number of programming issues which makes the building difficult to navigate or to understand the boundary of one space and the start of another.
The Solution
The proposed solution was to work with the buildings physical constraints and to make use of its acoustics. Minimal structural change was the key driving value for this proposal, seeking to use space programming to create a 'New' SCAD Student Center while keeping destructive design changes and financial costs in mind.
The structure is therefore split into two major functions; a downstairs 'public' area which makes use of its open and inviting on-street entrance to create an intimate place of meeting and a rest-stop for students trekking from the Dorms on Oglethorpe to the SCAD Library on Broughton. The existing design of the first floor already had sound dampening properties making it ideal for a public space such as this.
The 'De Lyon Cafe' proposal
The upper-level would then become "The Reading Room." A silent study area utilizing its grand acoustics and large atrium to enforce an unspoken policy of quietness and study, similar to how traditional neoclassical public libraries often are constructed.