Rutgers University at Camden
Camden, NJ

The Rutgers Law School Expansion and landscape is the second project to be implemented at Camden as a part of the Rutgers University Master Plan. The first project implemented will be the 4th Street Portal landscape, also designed by Ayers/Saint/Gross.

The existing site is located on Fifth Street between Lawrence and Penn Streets. Its current use is as a parking lot.

The Rutgers Law School Expansion landscape develops upon the ideas and language of the master plan and the 4th Street Portal project. The project takes control of the current parking lot site, placing the building to maximize open space for the school. Softscape is located within the “L” of the building while a hardscape plaza crosses the road at the grade of the adjacent walkways. This pedestrian zone will fold into the surrounding pedestrian landscape once the street is closed to vehicles as envisioned in the master plan. Lawrence Street remains the service side of the project as in the 4th Street project. The project will extend and connect with the 4th Street Portal project, wrapping around the back of the Law School and snaking by the Admissions Building.

A landscape material palette of paving, seating, lighting and plant material will be a continuum of the 4th Street palette, moving through the site. This undulation of forms weaves into the existing grid of the campus.

Completion: 2008
Size: 1.4 Acres
Cost: $400,000