The Land Use & Zoning Committee of Community Board 5 unanimously approved a plan by the Fashion Institute of Technology late last night to create a new addition for one of its mid-block buildings on 28th Street at its Chelsea campus.

The $148 million project would fill in most of a deep plaza at the rear of Building "C" with a 9-story addition that would be notable for its full-height atrium with a new system of solar collectors and a very unusual, intriguing and very attractive facade that would have large angled openings to create a new "campus center" on its fifth floor.

The new facade creates something of a deep scrim for the existing building, which is one of three mid-block buildings fronting on 27th Street that are major and excellent examples of "Brutalist" architecture.

The project has been designed by SHoP Architects, which is best known for its stunning addition to 360 West 15th Street, a residential condominium project on the southeast corner of Ninth Avenue that is known as The Porter House, and for 290 Mulberry Street, a residential condominium project on the southeast corner of Houston Street. The former is a spectacular and iconic "lighthouse" for Chelsea and the Meat Packing District where the architects have embedded vertical lights in the black addition that is set back from and partially cantilevers out over the older building with its large shed canopies. The latter is a relatively conventional mid-rise residential building that has large, undulating masonry facade panels that have the visual effect of the building's bricks breathing in and out, or, "huffin' and puffin'".

The project needs height and setback waivers from the Board of Standards & Appeals.

According to Bill Sharples, who made the presentation to the committee, the addition will have glass sides to continue the visibility of the existing building's interesting "waffle-like" facade and the top of the atrium faces south so that it can direct "natural light down into the new "campus center" as well as into the classrooms of the existing building since fabric design requires natural light.

The main entrance of the C Building will remain on 27th Street, which should be closed by the city between Seventh and Eighth Avenues to permit the institution to have a more "walkable" campus, but a smaller new entrance will also be introduced on 28th Street and the addition will have "bridges" to the existing building and its floors will be on the same levels.

Mr. Sharples, who was recently named Spring 2009 Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor of Architectural Design at Yale's School of Architecture, said that the building will be "green" and seek a LEED rating. He said that the "solar collectors" on the south-facing top part of the atrium will as "a byproduct provide heat for the building's hot water." He said that the collectors were being developed for this project and another his firm is working on for Google.

A spokesperson for the institution said that the building addition is not to expand its enrollment but to improve its facilities.

SHoP Architects has also designed a new Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport for General Growth Properties. SHoP has five partners: Bill Sharples, Coren Sharples, Chris Sharples, Gregg Pasquarelli and Kim Holden.

The new building addition is called C2. It promises to give Cooper Union's new building nearing completion on The Bowery designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis a serious run for the proverbial money in the sweepstakes for most interesting new mid-size building in the city.