Tech II

Campus drawing, c. 1960s with Tech II featured at the top, and Stanford White's buildings to the right. After the last Breuer construction, University Heights evolved from a strictly classical campus, to an assortment of the old and the new.

First page of brochure documenting the changes in engineering at the Heights.

In 1967, Breuer began work on the massive Technology II (Tech II) to replace the old engineering building. Completed in 1970, it would be the last addition Breuer would make to the campus. Another immense concrete structure, Tech II’s panels, each weighing 11 tons, garnered attention for its use of load bearing walls, the first building in New York City to implement this structural design. NYU intended Tech II to be a state of the art Engineering and Science building with laboratories, classrooms, and a “growing room” for the biology department.  In 1969, the Concrete industry Board awarded Breuer with their annual award praising it for its “conception, originality, and applicability of concrete, both in design and constitution.”

The panels created a self-supporting frame around the building eliminating the need to create a separate support system.

NYU used the Tech II for close to 3 years before leaving the campus in 1973. Bronx Community College renamed the building  Meister Hall and today it houses science labs, departmental offices, and a library.

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