Profile

Laura Spelman Rockefeller Halls
Princeton University

Princeton, New Jersey
Completed 1973

Student apartments
 

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On a 2.2-acre wooded terrain in the midst of Princeton University's older buildings, the award-winning Spelman Halls are an unobtrusive cluster of eight dormitory buildings three and four stories high. Privacy and openness are combined and preserved by the triangular shapes and diagonal placement of each building. The structures are interwoven by pedestrian byways and highways, leading into each building, through arcades or short-circuiting to other parts of the campus. Fronting and interspersed between the buildings, triangular terraces expanding from the pathway are edged with seating benches. At the third and fourth levels, bridges connect the buildings, forming a geometrically-patterned network over the walkways.

Relating to the more traditional buildings of stone masonry and limestone, the polyurethane-lined plywood and steel-formed precast architectural concrete exposes the buildings' structural system. Defining the entrance foyer and stairway and continuing the pathways, a vertical glass slot rises up the center of the nearly solid concrete surface of the entrance facade, terminating with a diamond-shaped skylight above the roofline. On the two diagonal walls, narrow horizontal ribbons of glass define the bedroom areas of each apartment, widening out into full glass walls expressing the living room and which, in turn, open out onto an open balcony shared with the adjacent suite.

The outdoor theme is echoed in each building's skylit foyer where bluestone paves the floor. The stairs, walls, and triangular platform parapets are architectural concrete with polyurethane-finished hollow steel and steel pipe handrails. For identifying accents, one wall in each lobby is painted with a different color, coordinated with the next building, and has a super graphics number exposing the natural concrete.

The complex accommodates 220 students in 52 four-bedroom suites and six one-bedroom units for married students. A typical floor has two four-bedroom apartments, each with a gallery off which the bedrooms, a common kitchen, bath, and living/dining area can be reached.

Awards

Major Components

Eight interconnected 3- and 4-story buildings; 52 four-bedroom suites; 6 one-bedroom apartments; 3- and 4-story entry lobbies, laundry rooms, lounges, storage

I. M. Pei & Partners services

Complete Architectural Services; Interior Design

Structural

LeMessurier Associates, New York, NY

Mechanical / Electrical

Flack + Kurtz, New York, NY

Landscape

Clarke and Rapuano, New York, NY

Graphics

Page, Arbitrio and Resen, Ltd., New York, NY

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