Warren & Moore Residential Colleges
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Careful massing and sensitive detailing create a significant campus housing precinct
In support of Vanderbilt’s campus student-life initiative, this project replaces outmoded dormitories on a prominent campus site. Our design builds on the tradition of mixed-program colleges, integrating residential, dining, and shared social spaces in one complex.
This new upperclassmen residential life facility is located on one of the campus’s most prominent sites, marking the arrival to Vanderbilt from downtown Nashville. The new complex, replacing six outmoded dormitories, houses 670 upperclassmen and is organized around central social spaces to provide smaller-scaled communities within the larger college system.
- Grouping the housing around two courtyards facilitates the identity of each living group and clarity of entry points.
- Security is simplified by the quadrangle configuration, while allowing the larger university community to freely use the courtyards and the shared facilities.
- The complex’s massing is carefully modulated to relate sympathetically to the neighboring historic buildings. The residence halls are designed to complement the collegiate Gothic architecture of the existing traditional campus.
- Underground parking is concealed in the site’s slope beneath the buildings and courtyard.
