New colleges will emulate proven model
Robert A.M. Stern Architects has been selected to design the two new residential colleges of Yale College, President Richard C. Levin has announced.
The new colleges will expand the average undergraduate population of 5,250 by 15 percent, to approximately 6,000, allowing Yale to make an even greater contribution to society by preparing a larger number of talented and promising students of all backgrounds for leadership and service.
The colleges will be built in a triangle north of the Grove Street Cemetery bounded by Prospect, Canal, and Sachem streets, creating a new sense of the geography of the campus by enlarging the footprint of Yale College.
“We are pleased that Robert A.M. Stern Architects, founded and led by Bob Stern, our distinguished dean of the School of Architecture, will be designing Yale’s 13th and 14th residential colleges,” Levin said. “Bob has designed many outstanding academic facilities around the country, and his knowledge of Yale and its architectural tradition is deep and profound. For the past decade, he, along with former Architecture deans Cesar Pelli and Tom Beeby, has advised me on every major building project we have undertaken. His understanding of Yale coupled with his appreciation of how good design can foster community will lead to a superior result.”
Stern to balance progress and tradition
Yale’s residential colleges are a signature element of undergraduate education at Yale, creating intimate communities and an exemplary environment for learning within a major research university. The new colleges will emulate Yale’s proven model with a master, dean, fellows, and students forming a close-knit family, supported by the highest caliber public and private spaces for living and study.
As with all new facilities at Yale, the new colleges will reflect a balance of progress and tradition; they will advance the mission of the University while complementing their campus and neighborhood surroundings.
“Yale’s residential college system has helped place Yale College at the pinnacle of undergraduate education,” said Stern. “It is an honor to work on such an important expansion of a tradition that contributes so much to the life of the students during their time at Yale.”
Stern Architects is a leading design firm of architects, landscape architects, and interior designers with wide experience in residential, commercial, and institutional work. Its geographical scope includes current projects in Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States. The firm’s honors include National Honor Awards of the American Institute of Architects.
During the last decade, Stern Architects has designed residence halls at institutions including Columbia University, Brooklyn Law School, Georgetown University, the University of Virginia, the University of South Carolina, Florida Southern College, Acadia University, the University of Michigan, the Taft School, and the Hotchkiss School.
Honors include the tenth Vincent Scully Award
Stern, who has served as dean of the Yale School of Architecture since 1998, is a practicing architect, teacher, and writer. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and received the AIA New York chapter’s medal of honor in 1984 and the chapter’s president’s award in 2001. He received the Athena Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism and the board of directors’ honor from the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America in 2007. The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., recently announced that Stern has been named the winner of the tenth Vincent Scully Award.
He has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad on both historical and contemporary topics in architecture. He is the author of several books, including New Directions in American Architecture (Braziller, 1969; revised edition, 1977). He is the co-author of an award-winning series on the architecture and urbanism of New York City from 1890 to 2000. He was also host of the acclaimed PBS television series, “Pride of Place: Building the American Dream.” Thirteen books on Stern’s work have been published. Stern’s work has been exhibited at numerous galleries and universities and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, the Denver Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago