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Apart from its identity as one of the older art colleges, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) has always been known for its eclectic mix of buildings within its campus. The newest to join this mix is the new Gateway building - honoured by the American Institute ofArchitects (AIA Maryland) on Sept 9 with an Honour Award for Excellence in Design. The Gateway is a mixed-use residential building that opened in August 2008 at the MICA campus. It has been designed by Baltimore-based international architectural firm RTKL.
The Gateway is a mixed-use residential building, located on the Northern edge of the campus. Not less than $32 million have gone into the creation of this 87,000 square-foot marvel. It stands out as clearly unique from conventional buildings. The design includes a drum-shaped, multi-colored glass, concrete and steel residence wing and a translucent glass studio/residential tower. These features justify the titles Gateway has earned - such as “Architecture of International Standard”, “Dynamic and Active Courtyard”, “Modern Cloister” and so on.
.jpg) The drum-shaped residential wing consists of 63 apartments for students, each with ample living space, a kitchenette and bathrooms. A highly sophisticated façade comprises multi-colored and multi-purposed glasses. The interior landscape courtyard houses a lobby/gallery, theatre, career centre, café, student residence and artist studios. This wing includes single, two or three-bedroom apartments. Single-bedroom apartments have amenities such as custom-designed furnitures and homosote pinup walls along the perimeter to maximize the flooding of natural daylight.
Concrete balconies ringing the interior give a clear view of the ongoing activity within the space. The lobby on the ground-floor doubles as gallery for student work, while a small café at the northern end of the lobby serves light snacks and coffee in an informal setting. BBox is a flexible theater with an entrance opposite the gallery, which hosts movies, lectures, performance and concerts. The second floor houses apartments for the residence adviser, offices and meeting spaces for academic programs, and MICA’s career development center.
A rectangular nine-storey glass tower looks like a giant billboard, forming the north façade of the Gateway. This glass tower, wrapped by fritted glass panels, provides a pleasant workspace that includes 38 cubicles and two open-plan studios for MICA’s student artists. With transparency as its operative slogan, this aesthetic Gateway building adds luxury to the Bolton hill and holds the attention of passers by.
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