Newhouse 1 (Syracuse University)

The publisher and university trustee Samuel I. Newhouse gave $15 million for a three-building communications center; Newhouse 1 is the first. Work began in 1963, after several cottages and a dormitory, Haven Hall, had been demolished. The building cost about $3.9 million, and J. D. Taylor was the contractor.

At its dedication on August 5, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson gave his Gulf of Tonkin speech there and announced U.S. air strikes against North Vietnam. The American Institute of Architects gave Pei its National Honor Award for the design in 1965. Newhouse 2 followed in 1974 and Newhouse 3 in 2007; Newhouse 1 was renovated in 2007 as part of the funding for Newhouse 3.

The building is cruciform, flat-roofed and made of precast concrete, with 76,000 square feet of floor space (about 7,000 m²). It has three floors above ground and two below; Pei likened it to an "iceberg", since nearly half of it lies underground. He drew inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple. At the center, the Dedication Hall, 32 feet high, is lit by a skylight. Vertical pillars give rhythm to the building inside and out.

It was first given over to print media, and held a library, a lounge open to the public, offices, labs, design studios, photo darkrooms and studios, and classrooms. It now belongs to the Newhouse School, and the Dedication Hall is the starting point of the tours the school gives to prospective students.

Newhouse 1 is a working teaching building on the Syracuse University campus. A plaza, a gathering place for the campus, links it to Newhouse 2 and Newhouse 3.