Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT

Ayers/Saint/Gross prepared a planning study for Wesleyan University's proposed undergraduate residence halls, which will accommodate 160 beds for freshmen and 100 for upper classmen totaling 120,400 gross square feet.

The site is particularly challenging, with a 40-foot grade change across the width, the majority of which is gathered in a 25-foot retaining wall at the north edge. This grading accommodates the current site use as a recreation field.

The recently completed Ayers/Saint/Gross master plan shows this site as a passageway from the core campus to an outlying area, and as such it must be an accessible route for pedestrians. The future residence halls were sited to facilitate this movement, and to continue to provide a central, level open space for recreation. The buildings themselves pick up the grade which is spread across the width of the site, reducing the retaining wall height at the edge to seat wall height. Plantings on the site emphasize the central passage through the landscape at the interior edge of the new open space, provide shade to the buildings, and anchor the remaining slopes.

Completion: Dec 2004
Size: 3.3 Acres