The New School’s new university center in Greenwich Village recently topped out, and now school officials are looking forward to the many facilities in the uniquely designed building. NY1's Real Estate reporter Jill Urban filed the following report.

After two years of construction, plans for the New School’s new university center are finally taking shape. Located on Fifth Avenue between 14th and 13th Streets in Greenwich Village, this super-structure will the centerpiece for the university.

"The New School has never really had a focal point for the campus, and that is what this building will be for the New School," says Tom Hoban, the senior vice president of Tishman Construction. "It's a complex building in that normally you would have an academic building or a dormitory building or a research building. This is all those components in one.

This 16-story structure will make up 375,000-square-feet. It will comprise of academic and lab space, a 600-bed dormitory, a new library, an 800-seat auditorium and other university facilities. There will also be a retail component on the 14th Street side.

The building will also welcome the public as it will help the university expand it’s community programs.

Its glass-and-brass design was created to celebrate and reflect all of the activity happening inside.

"The architecture is by Roger Duffy of Skimore Owings and Merrill. It will have a glass ground floor and then these incredible staircases going up the sides in glass that will reveal the activity of the students," says Paul Goldberger of the New School. "It will be exciting if you are in them looking out and it will be incredibly exciting from the sidewalk to look in and see what’s going on."

This building is replacing a smaller student center. While this new structure will be larger and more modern, it will also incorporate the latest in green technology.

"We have a co-generation facility, we have a waste water treatment facility, we have a green roof. The overall components of this green energy design will equate to a 30-percent energy savings in the overall usage of the project," says Hoban.

The building just topped out a few weeks ago and there is about a year left of construction. The new university center should be open and ready for occupancy by September 2013.