Project Title: Student Upper-class Apartments with a Focus on Sustainability

Firm: Lavallee Brensinger Architects

Submitted for Consideration in: Architecture

Client: Bowdoin College

Location: Brunswick, Maine

Project-At-a-Glance:
To offer students a variety of housing options, these upper-class residence halls are comprised of four, six, and eight-person “suite-style” apartments. Each apartment includes space for privacy and shared space designed for socialization. The design is centered around the kitchen, allowing housemates and friends to come together for shared experiences.

Project Narrative:

Due to outdated / limited housing options, the College experienced a 56% increase in the number of upperclassman students (over 10% of total population) that chose off-campus housing. Thus, having a negative impact on the student experience, town relationships, and operational finances. The team designed a solution which began with a campus-level feasibility study.

The study identified the following goals:

• provide attractive options that support independent home-like living in apartments for juniors and seniors,
• increases opportunities for various levels of social interaction,
• provide single bedroom, apartment style living,
• be highly sustainable, and
• address the functional and design concerns of adjacent non-campus neighbors.

The challenge: develop a small site bounded by a residential street of distinct New England vernacular homes on one edge, and a campus of institutional architecture on the other. Create an inviting and social living environment for 88 students that meets their needs for an independent home-like experience.  

The solution: the design team studied numerous options for massing and building occupancy.  The final iteration landed on just the right fit – 22 students in four buildings, each three stories high.  To offer students a variety of housing options, each building has four, six, and eight-person “suite-style” apartments. Each apartment includes individual space for privacy, as well as shared space designed for socialization. The result is a design that is centered around the kitchen, providing room for housemates and friends to come together for shared dinners, group studying, and other social gatherings. To address the two sides of the site (neighborhood residential and campus institution), the 4 buildings are intentionally shifted on site to create the illusion when passing by that there are only 2 buildings on the site.  As a result, this shift created opportunities for developing outdoor landscape areas for student socialization, recreational use, and landscape views.