NAC|Architecture - Student Housing Projects, Residence Halls, Dormitories: Architects, Seattle, Spokane, Los Angeles, Denver

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Student Housing, Residence Halls, Dormitories, Student Life:

Arbol de la Vida Hall, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
2012 Best Residential / Hospitality Project, Engineering News-Record (ENR) Southwest
2012 Honor Award, Excellence in Masonry Architectural Awards, Arizona Masonry Guild
2012 Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture, The Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
2011 Edison Award for Environmental Design, GE Lighting

Arbol de la Vida is the future home of the Honors College at University of Arizona. The unit types and planning modules for this project are very regular, with paired communities of between 14 and 17 total students. Each community has its own social center, a gathering area that doubles as a learning space, and a more formal study area for small groups. Each community also has a flexible and convertible bathroom arrangement so that the gender in the communities is adaptable to the program enrollment and curriculum in any given year. Each community has a very different shaped hallway, which is furnished and specially lighted – the hallway and gathering areas are one and the same and special care was taken to allow people walking by the site to see inside these collaborative areas in the evenings. Arbol de la Vida received LEED certification at the Platinum level. This level was targeted without resort to special systems or site renewable energy. The efficiency comes largely from its site and climate-appropriate design, local materials, innovative approach to ground water management, daylighting, and daytime thermal mass. In architectural character, Arbol is modeled after the "cool canyons" of the desert southwest. Slot canyons admit a high level of light during daytime hours, but use their thermal mass and depth to provide habitat and passive shading during the day, and heat-shed, passive cooling, and thermal conduction during the night.

Northside Residence Hall, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington; The newly designed five-story Northside Residence Hall at Washington State University is student housing that enhances WSU’s Residence Life program and is intended to increase student retention. The NAC|Architecture design concept meets the budget goals of a modern major university yet also possesses quality benchmarks that recognize the need for a long service life and enhanced energy performance. Each floor is home to 75 residents, but is then sub-divided into a West community of 37 and an East community of 38. Variety of room size, type and layout are available on each of the upper floors of the building, and the layout is repeated to created economies with the building services. Shared amenities include a large-volume rec room, living room, outdoor courtyard and rooftop terrace.

Likins Hall, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
2011 Edison Award for Environmental Design, GE Lighting
Likins Hall is an urban infill building on a challenging site. Designed as a Freshman Experience-style dormitory, the building forms half of a very important gateway to the campus. Consisting of 11 student communities of 28-32 students, with a Residence Advisor and a single Hall Director, these residences are the model of live-learn communities for U of A, with two gathering/collaboration spaces and two formal study spaces in each grouping. The first floor program is highly active and responds to the urban condition of the site, with residence hall administrative offices, large and small classroom spaces usable by residents as well as by other groups at U of A, secured bike parking and a series of resident-only support spaces that all face a shared courtyard. The architecture of Likins Hall represents a departure from the "walled city" paradigm of earlier residences. It allows views and glimpses into the common life of residents at every turn around the site, while providing a secure perimeter and an active street edge. It is a progressive live-learn community which outperforms all other campus buildings in energy-efficient design. Likins Hall received LEED certification at the Platinum level. It achieves its rating without special systems or onsite renewables. Its efficiency comes from a radical approach to storm water capture and processing, the use of local materials, daylighting and climate management strategies.

Campus Village Apartments, Denver, Colorado: Campus Village Apartments address the unique privacy and social needs of various student age groups. Freshman “suites” with double bedrooms and small kitchen/living spaces encourage interaction with larger groups and are located closest to campus. Upper division students are accommodated in full service and studio apartments.Campus Village Apartments, Phase I, is the first student housing built adjacent to the 35,000-student Auraria Campus in Downtown Denver. The project is a joint venture between a private developer and the C.U. Real Estate Foundation. The configuration of the buildings creates serene, protected courtyards for residents to gather or study. A cafe and convenience store are located at the entrance for use by students and the neighborhood. Multiple common areas which foster community are distributed throughout and include informal lounges, meeting rooms, a workout room, laundry and gathering spaces.

Posada San Pedro and Pueblo de la Cienega Residence Halls, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona: Posada San Pedro and Pueblo de la Cienega are phase two of the Highland District Housing project. These housing buildings were developed around the concept of a "walled city", a medieval planning diagram known for its courtyards, human scale and high density. Each of the two courtyards make use of intense color and composition, which helps to convey a sense of surprise from the simple street diagram proposed for the neighborhood. Special attention was paid during the development of the building diagram to the emerging sense of community contributed by each building element. The building is designed to encourage residents to spend time in communal spaces, increasing the informal learning that occurs through chance encounters. Benches, niches and overlooks encourage informal discussion. A major challenge to the design was making outdoor spaces for gathering which could be used in all seasons of the extreme desert climate.

East Hall, Whitworth University, Spokane, Washington: Employing a somewhat more traditional living arrangement utilizing individual bedrooms with building-wide shared common spaces, East Hall is laid out with two main residential wings that intersect at a "hinge point." With a capacity of approximately 170 students in just over 45,000 square feet, the new residence hall features a mixture of single, double and triple bedrooms; large game room and laundry facilities; an individual music practice room; two large student lounges, each with its own kitchen and fireplace; three additional smaller lounges, including a separate movie viewing lounge; and five separate outdoor decks – four of which are accessible only from inside the building. The residence hall also houses a full two-bedroom apartment for the resident director.The building's design is intended to convey a residential feel utilizing steeply pitched roof forms and wood windows. The building was built into a gently sloping site, which allowed the use of a daylight basement along the north side. Exterior materials were chosen for their long-term durability as well as their compatibility with the campus context. Locally manufactured brick, ground-face CMU and integrally colored concrete combine to offer many years of low-maintenance life while expressing the building's and the university's commitment to sustainable building practices. Exposed wood beams were used sparingly to highlight certain focal points of the building and to contribute to its fit into the heavily wooded campus.

Villa del Puente and "El Portal", University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona: Highland District Housing started with a University initiative to re-think the present campus housing and give special emphasis to Student Success, specifically the retention of first year students. Villa del Puente and "El Portal" are phase one of Highland District Housing. They frame a significant Gateway on the University of Arizona campus. After consideration of many potential forms to address this popular but difficult intersection of the campus, the design team settled upon the "diagonal" street intersecting a Neighborhood Square. Student rooms in a variety of configurations are arranged in four wings around a private courtyard. Informal gathering and study is accommodated in great rooms, group study rooms, individual study rooms and laundry/activity rooms. The building is designed to encourage residents to spend time in communal spaces, increasing the informal learning that occurs through chance encounters.

Duvall Hall, Whitworth University, Spokane, Washington: The four-story Duvall Hall has 160 beds arranged in varying-sized suites ranging from three to five bedrooms each. Suites on each floor are clustered around a common lounge, which serves as the living room and gathering spot for that floor. The first floor also houses a common laundry room and a game room. Completed in August 2006, this is the newest dormitory on the Whitworth University campus. Exterior design features include brick cladding and piers, bay windows, steeply pitched gable roofs, and an entry bridge from the uphill side of the building. The total building area is 45,000 square feet, plus a 2,500-square-foot basement.

Vine Hall, University of Arizona , Tucson, Arizona: In programming work with the University of Arizona, it became clear that the demand for eco-living had outstripped the level anticipated as the next generation of University of Arizona students brings ever heightened awareness of the use of resources. The Vine Project was conceived to address their demands and serve as a pilot project for the next generation of progressive student residence design, targeting energy savings so far in excess of current LEED design standards that the concept of a Living Building was brought on to provide a new benchmark. Consisting of 12 student communities of 17 students, fully-composted and a net energy exporter, Vine Hall is viewed to be a self-governing entity on the campus, very likely tied to the Environmental College in its curriculum and host to groups within and outside its walls who share an interest in environmental issues. The project recycles all components of the existing residence hall on-site. Vine Residence Hall’s Life-of-Water diagram takes in only storm water and refines all other site water to achieve Net Zero water use. It makes use of special systems and on-site renewables to reduce net electrical demand to zero. Architecturally, the building has a 2-story pedagogical building available to the public, with a 6-story residential building joined to it where the students would live.

Results:

Sustainability

Higher Education Projects: sun control envelope, optimizing energy performance
Student Housing: Eco-living, energy savings
K-12 School Projects: displacement ventilation, daylighting
Healthcare Projects: green roof, natural environment, sustainable wood products
Dental and Orthodontic Design: client preference, budget
Residential | Continuing Care Communities: energy savings, minimizing site disturbance
Commercial Projects: daylight harvesting
Civic | Public: adaptive reuse
Recreation | Community Projects: natural daylighting, waste reduction, thermal envelope
Restoration | Preservation Projects: daylighting, high-content recycled and locally procured material, building and material reuse
On-the-Boards: energy conservation, natural setting, daylighting

Story:

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