A closed architectural competition for the best design of the new academic building of the famous Institute of Fashion and Technology (FIT) took place almost 8 years ago, but the implementation of the winning proposal was postponed for several years due to difficulties in financing the construction.
SHoP Architects won this competition, proposing to add a deliberately thin and transparent building to the existing brutal volume of the educational institution. The main facade of the new building, facing 28th Street, is a glass surface, along which numerous boxes of stairs and galleries curve. These designs are sometimes combined into one horizontal line, then spread over different floors, and metal ties give them an obvious resemblance to a zipper - an accessory so indispensable for the modern fashion industry that it can easily be considered its symbol. In the curved aisles, exhibition spaces, student recreation and fashion show areas are organized.
In total, the building has 10 floors, on which there are numerous classrooms, art studios and workshops, equipped with everything necessary so that students can immediately translate their ideas into reality. By the way, some stages of their work can be watched directly from the street: for example, there are ateliers on the ground floor. And the center of the building's internal composition will be a three-story atrium, intended both for informal communication between future designers and for demonstrating their achievements.
