Helen Gurley Brown, legendary editor of Cosmopolitan and author of ‘Sex and the Single Girl,’ bequeathed an endowment to Columbia School of Journalism to launch an Institute of Media Innovation, where grantees can develop new modes of storytelling and innovative media platforms. The space is an incubator, where the brightest thinkers of today can create the narrative tools of tomorrow.
The main work area of the new institute, which is inserted into the historic Pulitzer Hall, needed to go beyond only providing the best technology for its users to experiment. It needs to act as a facade for the school and project its mission to the university body. The space is wrapped in a full height operable scrim, which allows its fellows to literally project their research across the walls and lets those on the outside see hints of the work being generated within. This playfulness and invitation to come closer would make Helen proud.