Along with a renewable power purchase agreement with a solar field in South County, Rhode Island, the elimination of combustion should help the university meet its commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. One sustainability measure is not as readily apparent as the exposed timber: the residence halls are all-electric. Slight steps in the facades and corbelling details help articulate the brick skin, while shifts in the fenestration create a syncopated rhythm. The architects used the material to create taut modernist skins, but with subtle articulation: small steps in plan and carefully placed corbelling create a play of light and shadow the window openings, which incorporate terra-cotta spandrel panels, shift slightly from floor to floor, lending the main facades, which both span around 225 feet (nearly the whole length of the block) a quiet but syncopated rhythm.

TenBerke chose brick because “we wanted something that could span both the residential and the institutional character of the surroundings,” explains Noah Biklen, principal in charge. More like fraternal twins than identical ones, the buildings, which in plan resemble a shallow U and L, are five stories tall at their highest point, stepping down to two stories at the south-the end closest to the lower-scale neighborhood.

The two brick-clad, mass-timber structures deftly negotiate a tricky urban context on sites that were most recently a strip small and parking lot where the university meets a residential district.

However, there is more to the new residence halls than merely expanding the on-campus housing inventory. The pair of new residence halls sit at the southeast corner of campus, facing each other across Brooke Street (1) much of the hybrid mass-timber and steel structure is exposed throughout, lending the interior a loftlike feel (2).

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