Design Goals :

• Create intimate outdoor spaces lacking on North Campus, provide more surface area for retail exposure to Lee Road, direct access from courtyards to retail, dining, and university store.

• Provide continuous indoor route for students using building as a shortcut or as protection from inclement weather, direct access to retail from both indoor and outdoor route, direct access to retail invites public usage of courtyards.

• Accomodate any type of resident, with a majority of fully accessible apartments (the rest are visitable).

Design Goals:

• Improve wayfinding: A landmark tower, located at the south-east corner of the site, is most visible to students as they approach from the Student Union and Putnam Way.
• Increase academic interaction: The tower provides large open spaces for student-faculty programs such as “Cooking classes with your professor.”
• Promote healthy and sustainable lifestyles: The ground floor provides areas for healthy eating and storing bicycles.

A key aspect of the UB 2020 master plan is the housing development along Lee Road that leads to the heart of the campus. The living learning quarter acts as a bridge between on-campus housing and academic facilities. The building used the full length of the site to maximize the use of the “bridge,” as well as to maximize natural light.

Design Goals:

• Provide a weather-protected walkway along Lee Road
• Create a zone of interaction between students from the arts and from engineering (campus college-town)
• House no less than 200 students and accommodate a wide range of students and living styles
• Create communities within the building
• Encourage healthy lifestyles
• Seamlessly integrate living and working into the same environment

The building is composed of a two level public base topped with four residential levels. The base of the building is made of curvilinear  glass, in contrast to the more private, solid, rectilinear top form. Taking cues from other buildings on campus, a large cantilever in the front connects the building stylistically to others in the area as well as provides some weather protection along the front sidewalk. There are two courtyards that cut through the center of the building. The building mass is highest to the east side of the building and lower to the west to maximize the amount of mid-day and afternoon sun that penetrates these courtyards.

Quality of life features are distributed throughout the building to integrate learning and living.

• Faculty as well as student living units are provided on different floors.
• Large open lounges are located in strategic circulation spaces to attract residents
• Laundries and recycling centers on each floor provide convenience and social contact opportunities
• Classrooms and study rooms are combined in the building.
• Food market and kitchens are available to ensure access to fresh nutritious food for both residents and the campus community