Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Parsons School of Design: The New School's Making Center

  • 06/01/17
Parsons School of Design 

BOTTOM LEFT AND BOTTOM MIDDLE PHOTOS © MARTIN SECK, PHOTOS © MICHAEL MORAN

The Making Center at Parsons School of Design — a 28,000-square-foot facility located in the heart of The New School’s Greenwich Village campus — is a space where students can explore innovative manufacturing methods, collaborate with their peers across a range of disciplines and employ state-of-the-art tools to address pressing social needs related to sustainability, human well-being and reviving urban making.

Open to all university students and faculty members regardless of their field of study, the Making Center is a place where everyone — from designers, technologists and activists, to managers, policy analysts and entrepreneurs — can work together in flexible, ad hoc teams to design innovative projects, methods and supply chains.

“This new space allows education and practice to shift from 20th-century siloed industrial model, which separates disciplines and thus limits interaction and collaboration, to a cross-platform model, which allows different designers to work together and learn from one another to design the future,” says Joel Towers, executive dean of Parsons School of Design.

The Making Center is a striking example of how art and design schools are using the built environment to shape the way students learn and interact. Designed by New York City-based Rice+Lipka Architects (R+L), the space features an open floor plan, including modular walls and tables that encourage students and faculty members to work with and learn from each other. More than half of the 14,000-square-foot main level is “dedicated to not being dedicated,” according to Lyn Rice of Rice+Lipka Architects.

“R+L conceived of the Center as a desiloed making place where design students from Parsons’ broad range of creative disciplines can work side-by-side,” Rice adds.

Underscoring Parsons’ commitment to making as a way of problem solving, students use the Parsons Making Center to design products and strategies that address pressing social needs.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • KWK Architects Announces Full Transition to Lawrence Group Branding

    KWK Architects recently announced that it will complete its transition to the Lawrence Group brand effective July 1, according to a news release. The merger marks the end of a three-year strategic integration process that began in March 2023 to unite the firms.

  • Washington State District Breaks Ground on New Elementary School

    Cheney School District No. 360 in Spokane County, Wash., recently announced that construction has begun on a new elementary school, according to local news. The district held a groundbreaking ceremony on May 18 in Airway Heights for the yet-to-be-named school, which is scheduled to open in fall 2027.

  • Phoenix School District Breaks Ground on New Prep Academy

    The Creighton Elementary School District near Phoenix, Ariz., recently broke ground on a campus replacement for Biltmore Preparatory Academy, according to a news release. The new space will allow the school to expand its enrollment by 50 percent for K–8 students and accommodate modern, collaborative learning styles.

  • Arizona District Breaks Ground on Community Training, Learning Center

    The Tolleson Union High School District (TUHSD) in Tolleson, Ariz., recently broke ground on a new Training & Learning Center (TLC) for both district professionals and the community at large, according to a news release. The 90,000-square-foot facility has an estimated completion date of spring 2027.