For the first decade of its existence, the New School for Social Research operated out of six renovated brownstones on West 21st Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. In 1931, the school moved to a more central location at 66 West Twelfth Street. The seven-story structure was a new construction designed by architect and theatrical designer Joseph Urban (1872-1933). Celebrated by some as the first example of International Style architecture in the United States, 66 West Twelfth was first in a future three-building complex at the site. In 1968, the school's Graduate Faculty expanded into a renovated department store at 65 Fifth Avenue, and since then the school has leased and acquired other sites in the area. The 66 West Twelfth Street complex still functions as the heart of the campus.

In 1930, Alvin Saunders Johnson (1874-1971)--co-founder of the New School for Social Research in 1919 and leader of the institution from 1922 through 1945--arranged for the purchase of three adjoining lots that, together with a fourth added soon afterwards, combined to form the footprint for a new structure. Situated close to multiple transportation hubs, the school's new home afforded Johnson the opportunity to express the school's mission to provide an environment for the exercise of free inquiry and egalitarian learning in a physical structure that also supported the needs of a busy adult student population. Charles and Albert Mayer--brothers to New School trustee Clara Woolie Mayer--introduced Johnson to architect Joseph Urban, who accepted Johnson's challenge. (The Mayer family held a long association with the New School. Clara came as a student in 1919 and stayed for many years, first as a trustee and eventually as vice president, dean of the School of Philosophy and Liberal Arts, and dean of The New School. Clara's brother, Charles, served as engineer on New School building projects for four decades, including the original building. The family also contributed $100,000 toward the 1930 building and the auditorium was originally named for their father, real estate developer and philanthropist Bernhard Mayer. And, in the 1950s, Albert's firm would serve as principal architect on the expansion project.)

When Urban's building on West Twelfth Street opened in 1931, the exterior--its black and white brick interspersed with bands of uninterrupted windows accenting the building's horizontal lines--stood in marked contrast to the nineteenth century brownstones surrounding it. The building received a great deal of attention in the press and among architects and critics. Hailed by some as a paragon of modernist architecture, an achievement of form meshed with function, and the first example of International Style architecture in the United States, detractors noted that while the building incorporated modernist design elements, especially in its façade, the interior did not reflect the design principles or philosophy associated with the International Style.

The auditorium and lobby were the most dramatic spaces in the new building. Johnson had stressed his wish for Urban to find an architectural solution in the auditorium that would encourage easy interaction between lecturers and students. Urban responded with an egg-shaped space that, with its wide, arched bands and soft, reflected light, produced a strikingly intimate space that downplayed the distance between stage and spectator.

With the design of 66 West Twelfth Street underway, Alvin Johnson invited two artists to paint murals in the building. José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) created five thematically-linked frescoes, which covered all four walls of a general dining room on the fifth floor, as well as the wall outside the room's entrance. (The floors were renumbered following the expansion project in the 1950s; at this time the fifth floor became the seventh.) The nine panels of Thomas Hart Benton's murals, created in egg tempera, were located in the Board of Directors' room on the third floor. While the 1950s expansion saw the space converted to a classroom, Benton's murals remained in place until 1984, when they were sold to the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Orozco's mural cycle has undergone two major restorations since its creation. It still resides in its original space, renamed the Orozco Room and no longer as a dining hall, but primarily for meetings and special events.

After World War II, an influx of new students created a pressing need for more space, and by 1953 the school, now under the direction of Hans Simons, had initiated a campaign to raise the $2.5 million that would ultimately triple the campus size. Designed by Albert Mayer of Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass, construction took place between 1956 and 1959. One of the two new buildings attached directly to the original 66 West Twelfth Street building, and the other faced Eleventh Street and was connected to the others by a sculpture courtyard and footbridge above. The new buildings were named the Jacob M. Kaplan Building (West Twelfth Street) and the Albert A. List Building (West Eleventh Street) for the trustees largely responsible for funding their construction. When the complex opened, the original building at 66 West Twelfth was christened the Alvin Johnson Building.

In 1968, the New School's Graduate Faculty offices and classrooms were moved into a large renovated department store at 65 Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street. By the 1980s, the Albert A. List Building had become the home for the New School's four-year liberal arts undergraduate program, Eugene Lang College. Today, while the campus has expanded to a number of other sites, the New School still occupies the Eleventh and Twelfth Street complex. Urban's original auditorium and lobby at 66 West Twelfth Street were landmarked in 1993, and continue to be used for university events and public programs. The 66 West Twelfth Street complex remains a core part of the university, home to academic departments, classrooms, and administrative offices, including the offices of the President and Provost.

Joseph Urban

Austrian-born Joseph Urban (1872-1933) built a flourishing career as a young architect in Vienna, while also establishing a reputation as a children's book illustrator and, importantly, as a theatrical designer. In 1911, Urban immigrated to the United States to become art director for the Boston Opera. When the company folded in 1914, he moved to New York City and began designing productions for the Ziegfeld Follies and the Metropolitan Opera, among many others. Urban gained particular reknown for his skill in manipulating color and light to produce striking emotional effects in a space. (Rosco Laboratories named a stage lighting filter after the designer that is still in use: Roscolux Urban Blue #81.) Only a few of Joseph Urban's buildings remain standing in the United States. These include Mar-A-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida; the base of the Hearst Tower in New York City; and 66 West Twelfth Street. Urban died just two years after completing the New School building.

Albert Mayer

Albert Mayer (1897-1981), a civil engineer, architect, and city planner, was principal of the firm responsible for renovations to the original building at 66 West Twelfth Street in the 1940s, and in the the 1950s was architect for the two new buildings adjacent to 66 West Twelfth Street and for further renovations to the original building. Mayer earned his engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1919, and later went on to become a registered architect. He worked with his brother as engineering contractor for the original New School building in 1930, later becoming a lead member of an architectural workshop and discussion group held at the New School. Mayer went on to found the Housing Study Guild with Henry Wright and Lewis Mumford, and was deeply engaged throughout his life with the relationship between physical structures and the community around them, with a particular focus on public housing. During the period in which Mayer worked on the New School building project in the 1950s, he was also involved in national and international urban planning and housing projects, including completing a decade of work as an advisor on a rural development project in India. Later in life, Mayer was recognized for his pioneering work in applying the principles of social research to urban development issues.