Daily Features

Making the Grade

As students return to campus this fall, schools unveil designs that offer a balance between work and play

By Jennifer Krichels, Superscript August 23, 2013

With each passing school year, academic institutions around the world are realizing the benefit of providing a well-rounded experience to students. The practice is not only good business—scholars and faculty members may be swayed by modern and easily accessible amenities that recreate the comforts of home—it also has produced a range of projects that physically improve campus plans and more fully integrate schools with their surrounding communities.

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with CG Jensen + EKJ + Grontmij, designed a new multipurpose hall for Ingels’s former high school, Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium, north of Copenhagen. The project transformed a courtyard into a new social meeting point and sports facility using curved glued laminated timber beams that do double duty as a deck and vaulted rooftop. Photo courtesy of BIG.
 
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with CG Jensen + EKJ + Grontmij, designed a new multipurpose hall for Ingels’s former high school, Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium, north of Copenhagen. The project transformed a courtyard into a new social meeting point and sports facility using curved glued laminated timber beams that do double duty as a deck and vaulted rooftop. Photo courtesy of BIG.
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with CG Jensen + EKJ + Grontmij, designed a new multipurpose hall for Ingels’s former high school, Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium, north of Copenhagen. The project transformed a courtyard into a new social meeting point and sports facility using curved glued laminated timber beams that do double duty as a deck and vaulted rooftop. Photo courtesy of BIG.

 

Studio Gang Architects, led by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, will design a major new residence hall and dining commons on the north end of the University of Chicago campus. Rendering courtesy of Studio Gang Architects © The University of Chicago.
Studio Gang Architects, led by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, will design a major new residence hall and dining commons on the north end of the University of Chicago campus. Rendering courtesy of Studio Gang Architects © The University of Chicago.
Studio Gang Architects, led by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, will design a major new residence hall and dining commons on the north end of the University of Chicago campus. Rendering courtesy of Studio Gang Architects © The University of Chicago.

 

Designed by Aidlin Darling Design, Stanford University's Windhover Contemplative Center broke ground at the end of July. The project, slated for completion in the spring of 2014, will house five of Nathan Oliveira's large-scale Windhover paintings and will be a place for students to find refuge from the stresses of daily life on campus. Photo courtesy of Aidlin Darling Design.
 
Designed by Aidlin Darling Design, Stanford University's Windhover Contemplative Center broke ground at the end of July. The project, slated for completion in the spring of 2014, will house five of Nathan Oliveira's large-scale Windhover paintings and will be a place for students to find refuge from the stresses of daily life on campus. Photo courtesy of Aidlin Darling Design.

 

Arkitema Architects designed the city's new school in Frederikshavn, Denmark, around a shared space at the center of its starlike shape, which enhances natural ventilation, daylight, and access to the outdoors. Photo courtesy of Arkitema.

 

Arkitema Architects designed the city's new school in Frederikshavn, Denmark, around a shared space at the center of its starlike shape, which enhances natural ventilation, daylight, and access to the outdoors. Photo courtesy of Arkitema.

 

Mahlum Architects recently completed a student-oriented housing complex at an underused edge of the University of Washington's urban campus. The site encompasses three mixed-use residential halls and two apartment buildings; student amenities include a 116‐seat restaurant, 7,000-square-foot grocery store, café, conference center, academic support center, health and wellness center and two retail spaces. Architects oriented the buildings around two public park spaces and provided each with a secure, elevated terrace as well. Photo © Benjamin Benschneider.
Mahlum Architects recently completed a student-oriented housing complex at an underused edge of the University of Washington's urban campus. The site encompasses three mixed-use residential halls and two apartment buildings; student amenities include a 116‐seat restaurant, 7,000-square-foot grocery store, café, conference center, academic support center, health and wellness center and two retail spaces. Architects oriented the buildings around two public park spaces and provided each with a secure, elevated terrace as well. Photo © Benjamin Benschneider.
 
Mahlum Architects recently completed a student-oriented housing complex at an underused edge of the University of Washington's urban campus. The site encompasses three mixed-use residential halls and two apartment buildings; student amenities include a 116‐seat restaurant, 7,000-square-foot grocery store, café, conference center, academic support center, health and wellness center and two retail spaces. Architects oriented the buildings around two public park spaces and provided each with a secure, elevated terrace as well. Photo © Benjamin Benschneider.
In Newark, New Jersey's central ward, KSS Architects designed a new facility for TEAM Charter Schools, a nonprofit organization continuing to expand its presence in the city. TEAM's Newark Collegiate Academy (NCA) is housed in a new state-of-the-art high school whose amenities—including a theater, large gymnasium, and daylit art and science classrooms—are designed to encourage involvement from students and community members alike. Photo courtesy of KSS Architects.

 

In Newark, New Jersey's central ward, KSS Architects designed a new facility for TEAM Charter Schools, a nonprofit organization continuing to expand its presence in the city. TEAM's Newark Collegiate Academy (NCA) is housed in a new state-of-the-art high school whose amenities—including a theater, large gymnasium, and daylit art and science classrooms—are designed to encourage involvement from students and community members alike. Photo courtesy of KSS Architects.
 
In Newark, New Jersey's central ward, KSS Architects designed a new facility for TEAM Charter Schools, a nonprofit organization continuing to expand its presence in the city. TEAM's Newark Collegiate Academy (NCA) is housed in a new state-of-the-art high school whose amenities—including a theater, large gymnasium, and daylit art and science classrooms—are designed to encourage involvement from students and community members alike. Photo courtesy of KSS Architects.

Many recent plans have begun with an underused area of campus. A recent project by Bjarke Ingels Group with CG Jensen + EKJ + Grontmij transformed a plain courtyard at Ingels’s former high school into a type of interactive terrain that houses a multi-purpose hall beneath a vaulted wooden roof that creates an open-air deck and gathering space above.

“Rather than placing the hall outside the school—and spread the social life further—we have created a new focal point and link between the school's existing facilities,” explained Ingels. “The roof forms a molehill that serves as a giant piece of informal furniture engaging and supporting student life.”

The University of Chicago recently unveiled plans for a major new residence hall and dining commons designed by Studio Gang Architects. Designed to house 800 undergraduates, the facility will be an opportunity to foster a feeling of community among students and strengthen ties with the surrounding Hyde Park neighborhood.

The Books

On Campus: Architecture, Identity, and Community Robert A. M. Stern
Urban Design for an Urban Century, Second Edition Lance Jay Brown
David Dixon
Oliver Gilham

“We are excited to develop our design that focuses on creating vibrant student communities within the residence halls, connected to a series of new, active public green spaces, and environments,” said firm leader Jeanne Gang.

But a school need not have a headlining architect or a large budget to make an impact. In Newark, New Jersey’s Central Ward, KSS Architects recently completed a new high school facility for nonprofit organization TEAM Charter Schools. Built on an empty site near the New Jersey Institute of Technology and mass transit services, the school provides resources that many surrounding schools lack, including a state-of-the-art athletic facility and modern science classrooms. Most important, the modest building incorporates the neighborhood around it; with features including a separate evening entrance for public access to athletic facilities, the school has become a place for the entire community to gather.

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