4240 Architecture was awarded this $250 million, five-building phased housing and dining project. The first phase would include a temporary dining facility and three residence halls, then a second phase with the largest residential building on the project and a full dining and student services building. Through Design Development, the interior and exterior teams cross-pollinated throughout the process to refine the space planning and exterior design as one. Space plan refinements were made hand in hand with exterior revisions to match, rendered elevation studies were used to present suggested refinements to save cost and maintain signature aesthetic features.

On our team, I was the Project Architect leading the interior layout of the buildings and MEP coordination. In addition to the general back and forth between interior space planning and exterior design refinements, I focused on building commons, unit planning, shared bathroom layouts and temporary dining and kitchen coordination with a plan to convert these spaces in the future to offices. I was also responsible for accessibility compliance and studies to integrate and refine different MEP systems as they were being priced to determine their impact on both interior and exterior components. Due to prior experience working with high-rise projects using load-bearing stud walls, I was a resource for team members charged with structural coordination of this system.

Although this project was paused at the end of Design Development, the process offered great insight into the concerns of housing and dining staff and their vision for inclusive, community focused student spaces.