Roger Williams University for the North Campus Residence Hall, with Perkins+Will; also Rist-Frost-Shumway Engineering; Odeh Engineers, Inc.; Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc.

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The goal for the North Campus Residence Hall at Roger Williams University focused on the university mission of learning to bridge the world. The project reduced the amount of leased and off-campus property, and increased the diversity of residential types. One challenge was to create a building that would set a high architectural standard for future development.

The site is in an undeveloped precinct on the edge of campus, bordered by a parking structure and surface lots to the north, playing fields and academic core to the south.

The configuration and architectural expression of the hall bridges the pedestrian thoroughfare through the site and becomes a gateway to the campus from the north. Primary entrances and common areas – the café, game room, the Great Room – are concentrated around the path as it intersects the building, strengthening connections between the campus core and its periphery.

Another objective was to look beyond the first phase of 350 beds to a future total of 1,000 beds. The new hall anticipates a logical pattern of growth and creates a sense of place where none previously existed.

“The North Campus Residence Hall has positively transformed our concept of residential life on campus in ways that I could not have expected . . . it is a perfect fit for our future,” says President Roy J. Nirschel.

The building also helps improve the image of housing and residence life, quite significant in trying to attract more students to campus housing.

Open spaces preserve views to Mount Hope Bay and a large central residential quadrangle will be shared with future residence halls. Surface parking is consolidated into the expanded north parking structure.

To serve residents and the university community, key flexible common spaces in the building are comfortable, welcoming and strategically located to invigorate, enhance and enrich student life.

The jury said, “ . . . site planning is successful from landscape, interiors, programming . . . good all around . . . interiors very elegant . . . ”

Project Team: Roger Williams University with Perkins+Will; also Rist-Frost-Shumway Engineering; Odeh Engineers, Inc.; Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc.