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PROJECT St. Edward’s Residence Hall and Dining Facility, Austin
CLIENT St. Edward’s University
ARCHITECT Alejandro Aravena; Cotera+Reed Architects
DESIGN TEAM Ricardo Torrejon; Philip Reed; Juan Cotera; Tiffani Erdmanczyk; Adam Pyrek; Travis Hughbanks; Joyce Chen; Leyla Shams
CONTRACTOR Flintco; Flynn Construction
CONSULTANTS HS&A (project mgmt/owner rep); Datum Engineers (structural); ACR Engineering (MEP base bldg); Energy Engineering Associates (MEP first floor); Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (waterproofing); Bury+Partners (civil); Sasaki Associates (landscape); RVI Planning (associate landscape architect); Dickensheets Design Associates (acoustics); Landmark Restaurant Equipment and Design (food service); Flying Fish Design (arch. model)
PHOTOGRAPHER Cristobal Palma Photography; Andy Mattern, Artimbo.com

FOR ST.EDWARD'S UNIVERSITY TO ACHIEVE A DESIRED NATIONAL PROMINENCE as an institution of higher learning, President George E. Martin set out in 2001 to double the student enrollment to 4,000 by 2010. Martin knew that would require significant capital improvements, so he commissioned Philadelphia’s H2L2 to masterplan the 498-acre hilltop campus. That master plan, updated in 2005 by the Boston office of Sasaki Associates, located five new residence halls and nine additional academic buildings for the independent Catholic university. (See the news article in the November/December 2006 Texas Architect.)

All of the proposed residence halls are now built, and they demonstrate the broad range of architectural acceptance within Sasaki’s master plan. Opened in 2003 and located in the heart of campus, the traditionally patterned Basel Moreau Hall and Jacques Dujarié Hall were designed by Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company of Norfolk, Virginia. Both reflect the nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival style of Nicholas Clayton’s nearby Main Building (1888) and Holy Cross Hall (1905).

At the other end of the stylistic spectrum are the other three new residence halls built as a complex six years later. Clearly a modern trio, Lady Bird Johnson Hall, Le Mans Hall, and Edmond Hunt Hall are know collectively as a “residential village.” Actually, the 119,000-sf complex is a mixed-use project with dorm rooms located on the upper three floors. The ground-floor spaces contain two eating venues, a convenience store, and a health/counseling center. Each of the three narrow four-story halls also has its own contiguous grass terrace located on its respective north or east sides. The students share two large communal courtyards, with some of the outdoor areas open to the sky and some partially shielded from the sun by one- and three-story connections and cantilevered segments of the buildings. These dramatic ceilings effectively form a shady glass canyon that serve as a town square for the east side of campus.

Designed by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, teamed with Cotera+Reed of Austin, the dormitory complex is his first project in the United States. Aravena, appointed this year to a seat on the Pritzker Prize jury, won the commission through an architect selection process that included visits to see his built work in Chile. He spoke during his interview about creating opportunities for student interaction, an objective set by St. Edward’s trustees as a way to enrich the college experience. Bringing students together in casual settings also was seen as a way to imbue dorm life with the values and traditions of Catholic heritage. This planned interaction is evident from spaces such as the third-floor laundry room where long and unexpected sight lines visually connect occupants with activities in the courtyard below. Other points of random confluence are designed inside and outside the buildings.

The brick envelope of the complex is multi-faceted and non-orthogonal in three dimensions – angled in plan and chamfered in elevation as well as in section – and the sculptural effect reduces the overall massiveness of the three narrow halls. The masonry exterior corresponds with the architect’s description of the project as a geode and that aptly characterizes the craggy outer walls faced with broken header brick. The exterior’s dark, heat-absorbing glass further supports the metaphor by making the buildings seem opaque and solid while inconspicuously affording transparency through its irregular tall and long fenestration. And like the inside of a geode, window walls at the interior of the village appear as crystals that yield a softer and translucent effect. These three-story, inward-facing walls of multi-colored glazing create a vibrant connection for occupants, with large areas of glass that signify gathering places seemingly pushing the volumes outward over the courtyards below. There are five types of glass in the interior window walls – two transparent and three opaque – that together with black mullions resemble an elongated De Stijl composition. The transparent types are the dark, heat-absorbing kind also used on the perimeter of the village and the red-tinted glass used only on the courtyard side. The three types of opaque glass – white and two shades of red – resemble the narrow color range of a geode. Furnishings in the common areas repeat the red hues of the fenestration.

The color red is a significant part of the campus palette and ties directly to the red tile roofs of St. Edward’s historic buildings. In fact, the trustees specifically asked Aravena for a red roof and he dutifully provided one, albeit in standing-seam metal and barely discernible from the ground save for a very thin red fascia that hints at the top surface. Aravena applied the signature hue to fenestration in a four-level parking garage completed in 2008 and located in the far eastern corner of the campus. Planned to accommodate commuter students, the design similarly stands out from the university’s more traditional architecture.

The residential village has pedestrian-friendly view corridors that facilitate campus wayfinding. The principal corridor that bisects the village is also the direct path between the student apartments on the eastern-most side of campus and the academic buildings located at the center of the hilltop. This wide pedestrian walkway provides an unobstructed grand view of Clayton’s Main Building. The long north face of Moore Ruble Yudell’s recently completed Natural Science Center across the street to the west neatly aligns with the north face of Hunt and Le Mans Halls and further channels the pedestrian’s view to the iconic Main Building.

The other view from the village courtyard is the vista to downtown Austin that becomes panoramic when seen from the less restrictive north terrace vantage point. These corridors also provide comfortable outdoor spaces during the warmer months because they pull air through the breezeways that help cool the courtyard and terraces. The unfavorable north-south solar orientation of the village’s buildings is mitigated by recessed, narrow, and heat-absorbing glazing.

St. Edward’s leadership proudly proclaims the new residential village as a landmark structure. While Aravena may have intended to design a background building, the complex is decidedly non-traditional in appearance yet functions to provide important institutional requirements for the entire campus population. Given the university’s goal of improving college life at St. Edward’s, the residential village is an appealing campus improvement that advances its strategy to become one of the best small colleges in the U.S.

--A TA contributing editor, the writer is the principal of Connolly Architects in Austin.