The Princeton University Residential Colleges project is a new 485,000 square foot student housing facility, the first to be completed under the university’s recent campus expansion plan. Designed as a small village connected to recreational areas, the surrounding natural landscape, and the campus, the complex sits on 11 acres and includes eight residence halls with ample student life space split into New College West and Yeh College.
Each residential college houses 510 students and features its own distinctive exterior characteristics, while a shared opaque wall and punched window typology, using grey calcium silicate brick, visually unites the buildings. The ground floor of each building, comprised of white oak framed glass walls, create an inclusive and welcoming environment. Front’s scope included the brick masonry veneer, punch windows with decorative metal surrounds, timber and aluminum curtain walls, including curved panels at the dining hall, precast concrete with custom formliners, standing seam and corrugated metal rainscreen panels, and wood soffit and wall cladding.
Front consulted on the entire project from concept design through construction administration. The new residential colleges mark Front’s third project on Princeton’s campus, after the School of Architecture Addition and the Lewis Center for the Arts. The project received a 2023 New York AIA award.