Langston Hughes

Buffalo,NY

This African American art institution has reinforced the Buffalo community for the pasty forty years. Invited by the Jeremiah Paternership, our office studied the Langston Hughes building in order to evaluate its potential and investigate future methods of improvement. In order to facilitate security and create a logical multi-tenant building, we reorganized the entry to provide a well defined entrance sequence. The relocated new entry seeks to provide adequate exit stairs and a means to logically circulate the building. With the intention to complete the third story of the existing masonry building and create balance, we infilled the east section of the third floor. New windows with insulated glass were placed throughout the entire building in order to provide a new level of energy efficiency. Furthermore, the main entrance was relocated and accented with a custom designed exterior canopy to provide a clearly focused entry.