PARSONS THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DESIGN opened its new "urban quadrangle" on Fifth Avenue at 13^th Street this week with fanfare that seemed modest for the scale of the space. Designed by the New York firm, Lyn Rice Architects, the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center makes a dynamic public statement about the institution and the design arts it teaches here.

Fronted with glass along the avenue and the side street, art galleries and teaching spaces almost meld with the adjacent streetscape. Lyn Rice, one of the architects who designed the Dia: Beacon Riggio Galleries, created a double-height skylight covered public space that unites several buildings that date from the 1900s. The formerly small disjunctive areas now flow from one to another, visually united through the polished concrete floor and a scored aluminum ramp that marries two vastly different floor levels.

Left: Student critique area and student art. Center: Digital clock and Skylight Quad. Right: The Kellen Gallery. Photos: Peggy Roalf.

On the glass-enclosed corner of Fifth and Thirteenth is a student critique space with a wall that pulls out and wheels around at 45 degrees to provide pin-up space and a bit of privacy. Huge monitors next to the nearby elevators display student work, and the wall surface here is covered in digitally produced art created by a student, which will be replaced on a regular basis.

Technology is evident everywhere, never more visibly so than in an elevator wrapped in a jungle of pipes and ducts. The entire assemblage is then veiled in a web of expanded aluminum mesh - the same material that wraps the New Museum's exterior. Adjacent to the elevator is a digital clock set to the school's class schedule. The large monitor displays each class that occurs during the hour at hand, then automatically resets on the subsequent hour.

The prevailing theme of introducing the public to the process of art and design is again emphasized in the main gallery. A box within a box, a wall on one side stops short of the ceiling to reveal the original building's windows - a visual comment about architectural styles. Glass walls on the street side enable passers by to see not only the art within, but also the adjacent exhibition prep area. One of the gallery's neatest features is the 2-inch gap between floor and walls. Not only does it create a ribbon-like shadow that defines the perimeter, it also enables wiring to be carried from anywhere in the space through this slot and back into the prep area.

The inaugural exhibition, co-curated by Silvia Rocciolo and Eric Stark, features contemporary art from the New School's permanent collection, and includes work by Chuck Close, Joseph Bueys, Glenn Ligon, Mariko Mori, Lorna Simpson, and Andy Warhol, among others. Future exhibitions include I.D. Magazine's 54^th Annual Design Review, in July, and Democracy in the Age of Branding, in October.

The Johnson Design Center is envisioned as a meeting and exhibition place for all departments within the university. In addition to the galleries, an 89-seat auditorium, a student orientation center, a study and resource center for works on paper, and several meeting rooms offer a sense of unity as they set a dynamic, highly visible example of the importance of art and design.