Brown University is planning on accepting more applicants this year and will need more living spaces to house them.  Integrating the design with a popular, and thriving urban neighborhood is among the greatest projects challenges and requires careful responses to street, scale and context.

Because Brown University students currently use this site as a throughway to the athletic facilities, the new dormitory building acts as a sliding mechanism allowing students to move through the building while allowing the rest of the public to move past the building and through the public plaza.  The facade facing the street acts as an urban backdrop while the facade facing the protected plaza takes on an organic curve offering a hint of a different realm.

The circulation for the building interior looks out through a massive wall of glass over the public plaza below.  The curved glass provides a visual cue inviting pedestrians into the plaza and allows each unit inside the building to be unique.