Pratt Institute, the world-renowned arts and design college in Brooklyn, commissioned Think! to design this new seven story 120,000 sq ft academic building to house 12 departments, including the School of Digital Arts, Admissions, Financial Aid, Public Relations, The Pratt Center and other student services and creative departments. The building's approach to its context is reflected in its masonry facade which relates to the 19th century buildings of Myrtle Avenue, while the facade facing the campus opens up as a transparent louvered wall system reflecting Pratt’s position as a leading design institution. 

Myrtle Hall has allowed for significant improvement and re-allocation of space in Pratt’s other academic buildings. Consistent with Pratt’s campus-wide commitment to sustainability Think!’s design utilizes a combination of high-tech and low-tech sustainable strategies including green roofs and photo voltaic technology which lead to Myrtle Hall becoming the first institutional building in Brooklyn to achieve a Gold LEED certification.

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Pratt Institute’s 15,000 sq ft state-of-the-art Film and Video Department features 3,000 sq ft of soundstage space including an infinity green screen, a 96-seat screening room, a sound recording and mixing studio, and two high-end post production suites. The facility also includes classrooms, edit suites and faculty offices.

A stunning series of perforated, sculptural metal panels wrap around the entrance lobby and envelop rooms requiring sound-proofing and darkness. A floating bridge connects classrooms and offices on the second floor. Interstitial spaces throughout serve as dynamic social areas for students to foster a vibrant and collaborative filmmaking environment.

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In recent years Pratt’s leadership has recognized the imperative to respond directly through the curriculum to incoming students, and has reflected the profound impact digital technology has on the creative arts today. Think! has been at the leading edge of this change, first with the Pratt Department of Digital Arts (at Myrtle Hall), then with the Department of Film and Video, and now the Game Arts Studio. All three of these programs have seen tremendous growth due to the advent of these advanced facilities. Game Arts took over the former administrative space at Myrtle Hall and was conceived as a free-form deep space environment that is meant to highlight the kinetic video displays and on-screen work of our future video artists.

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The Duane L. Jones Recital Hall is a major performance and presentation venue on the campus of SUNY College at Old Westbury.  At 400 seats the renovated space provides a new home for campus events ranging from dance and theater performance to academic activities such as lectures and various ceremonies.

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A complete renovation and upgrade of an existing academic auditorium into a state-of-the-art music and dramatic performance venue for this prestigious school. The project encompassed all new floor, wall and ceiling finishes, audio-visual and lighting systems, new seating and projection booth and acoustical treatments. Using a modest palette of materials (including Home Depot bamboo floor for the main architectural ceiling element) the space was transformed into a lively and modern space at the heart of the institution.

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Hofstra University wanted to repurpose the empty Hagedorn Hall into its School of Education. The building’s existing circular plan and an unarticulated façade made it difficult to find its entry and to find a way through the building.

The new design was intended to give the building and the school a strong identity visible from the campus and from the neighborhood street on which it is located.  The total gut renovation includes new classrooms, library and academic facilities. Electronic signage was used on the façade and throughout the building to aid in wayfinding. The signage helps activate public spaces and long corridors with information about programs and schedules as well as thoughts and ideas. A variety of public meeting spaces are interspersed throughout the building to encourage informal learning and discussion.

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Think! was appointed to renovate and bring cohesion to five disparate performing arts venues at City University of New York’s Queens College to create a unified arts precinct for the campus. Through an integrated and phased renovation and expansion of each building Think! designed a series of large scale and bold architectural transformations that included new glass entry pavilions. In addition, a common palette of modern materials that vary slightly at each venue, highly visible signage and environmental graphics and a unifying landscaped design all contribute to craft a new audience experience and create an identifiable cultural heart for the campus.

The venues include The Colden Auditorium, the Goldstein Theater, the Colden Amphitheater, the LeFrak Recital Hall/Aaron Copeland School of Music and the Godwin Ternbach Museum.

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A new 55,000 sq ft performing arts building on the Hofstra University campus is home to the school;’s theater and music programs. The building includes a flexible black box theater with scenic shop and support areas, orchestral rehearsal spaces and faculty offices. The building was designed to distinctly express each of these components and great effort was made to acoustically isolate each from the other.

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Designed for children between the ages of birth and 7 years old Brooklyn Global Prep School is located in the Oosten residential building on the East River waterfront at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge. The Oosten was also designed by Think! The project is a renovation of the 7,400 sf space over two levels, that is predominantly open plan, with minimal intervention, taking advantage of the architectural features in the existing space. The learning landscape encourages freedom, creativity and socialization by emphasizing transparent and communal spaces, free flowing classrooms, flexible community space, art studios and an indoor garden and playground.

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In the mid-1990s, Brooklyn College , one of the senior campuses of the CUNY system was coming to terms with the disadvantages to their commuting student body due to a lack of access to computers. Phase One of the Computing Café, housed in a 7,000 sq ft vacant cafeteria, was an attempt to provide greater access to computer technology, but not as the uninspired environments that typified public colleges. The chief librarian’s vision was modeled during the rise of the internet café, an enlivened, comfortable and socially engaging environment that allowed single study, pairs and larger groups. In this project, we celebrated and exposed the supporting technical systems instead of concealing everything behind ordinary hung ceiling. Soon after its completion in 1996, the Café became the most popular study and meeting spot on campus.

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Project details coming soon

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