SHoP Architects has completed the Joyce F Brown Academic Building for the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, featuring a distinctive facade with origami-like folded metal panels and innovative design elements that showcase student activities to the public. The 10-story structure, named after the school's acting president, houses 24 classrooms, an auditorium, a large knitting laboratory, a mezzanine common area, and will eventually include the president's office on the top floor.
Located in Midtown Manhattan along West 28th Street, the building sits at the border of FIT's two-block campus in the heart of the fashion district. The architects designed the structure to make the school's creative activities visible to the broader community for the first time. "From the outset of the project, we wanted to highlight what was happening at FIT and make it visible for the first time to the broader fashion district," said SHoP Architects founding principal Bill Sharples. "We're very proud to have had a hand in presenting the creative presence of FIT to the city."
The building's design consists of two main exterior volumes: a solid, metal-panel backside and a slim glazed volume affixed to the front, with thin, striated louvers lining the facade. The structure is connected to the campus's main building, the Marvin Feldman Center, via an enclosed atrium that measures 15 feet wide and extends upwards through all 10 stories. This connection exposes the Feldman Center's facade, which previously faced the street, creating an internal courtyard effect.
The design of the Joyce F Brown building draws direct inspiration from the existing Feldman Center's distinctive tessellated aluminum skin and anodized golden window frames. "Feldman's distinctive tessellated aluminum skin, punctuated by anodized golden window frames, served as direct inspiration for the origami-like folded metal panels that define the new facade on 28th Street," explained SHoP Architects. "Together, the two buildings form a dynamic composition – one reflecting the heritage of design innovation, the other projecting that legacy into the future."
One of the building's most innovative features is its subterranean knitting laboratory, described as the largest campus knitting lab in the United States, which sits below street level where passersby can look down through windows into the double-height space to observe sewing activities. An auditorium for lectures and events is also visible from street level, while classrooms and studios occupy floors two, three, four, seven, and eight. The fifth floor features an open, double-height common area that spans the building's footprint, with large windows facing the street and views overlooking the internal atrium.
The 15-foot-wide atrium serves as more than just a connector between buildings – it functions as a vertical common space where the college's past and future converge. "The atrium connects Feldman and the new academic building, creating a vertical common where the college's past and future meet," the studio explained. "This light-filled space, cathedral-like in scale and spirit, showcases student and faculty work in glass vitrines, and frames views into student making activities within Feldman Hall." Exhibition cases both inside and outside the building display student work, further emphasizing the educational mission.
The building's namesake, Dr. Joyce F Brown, FIT's current president, is scheduled to step down at the end of 2025 following a remarkable 27-year tenure. She will be succeeded by designer Jason Schupbach, who currently serves as Dean at Drexel's College of Media Arts & Design in Philadelphia. The completion of this academic building represents a significant addition to FIT's infrastructure and its commitment to providing state-of-the-art facilities for fashion education in New York City's garment district.
