Headed up by Thom Mayne, architecture firm Morphosis won a 2004 bid to develop Cooper Union's new Academic Building on Third Avenue in NYC. Construction has finally begun and there's even a webcam documenting the (not exactly riveting just yet) progress. The exterior design "invites the neighborhood to observe and to take part in the intensity of activity contained within" while the open interior configuration serves to promote interconnection between the school's Engineering, Art, and Architecture departments.

The new academic facility is conceived as a stacked vertical piazza, contained within a semi-transparent envelope that articulates the classroom, laboratory and art studio spaces. The vertical campus is organized around a central atrium that rises to the full height of the building. This connective volume, spanned by sky bridges, opens up view corridors across Third Avenue to the Foundation Building.

The building's steel-and-glass double skin system provides manual control of daylight from the interior, efficient energy use, selective natural ventilation, and a reduction of summertime heat radiation. In addition to the 15,000 sf of classrooms, 40,000 sf of laboratories, 10,000 sf of Art Teaching Studios and workspaces, and 12,000 sf of institution and student activity spaces, the building wil house a 200-seat auditorium, an exhibition gallery, and a retail space. More info and complete credits and specs can be found at dezeen.