Project Spotlight:
NYS Armory at Latham, NY
BDA facilitated a two-day design charrette at the Latham, NY Headquarters Building to gather information and establish key issues impacting design. This group decision-making process among BDA, NYSOGS, DMNA, and local staff served to validate program requirements, build consensus, and establish a direction for further design development.

Site constraints, the need to maximize natural daylight, and the existing building’s unique architectural style, configuration, and space utilization were among the factors influencing the design solution. Numerous ideas for adding onto the building were examined until consensus was reached on the most appropriate design solution.

The final concept includes removal of a paved driveway between two existing buildings, and creation of a circular court area that will act as a gathering place and focal point, drawing visitors toward the main building entrance. It will also serve as a gateway to a future memorial plaza, replacing the existing roadway with formal paving and landscaping.

The addition itself is complementary to, but purposely different from, the existing building. New are the use of aluminum cladding materials, the introduction of a prominent glazed tile corridor wall, and the positioning of cantilevered curtain wall elements on both ends of the addition. Banded-aluminum windows maintain a layering consistent with the existing building.

The prominent corridor wall figuratively slices and separates the addition from the existing building, creating a light-filled corridor between them. A vaulted skylight brings natural light into the corridor and borrowed light into existing adjacent offices.

Porcelain tile is used as both an interior and an exterior facing to act in contrast to the otherwise monochromatic color scheme of the existing building. The wall purposely extends beyond the northern face of the building to conceal an existing emergency generator exhaust stack that runs up and above the existing building’s exterior façade. The wall also is meant to partly conceal the exit so that attention is not diverted from the main entrance.