Campus Architecture Database: Student Center

Curry College, Milton, Mass.

Building Type: Campus Center

Construction Type: New

Cost: $35-million

Square Footage: 84,000

Architect: CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares; LDL Studio

Contractor: Suffolk Construction Company

Opened: 2009

Not many college buildings draw on the lessons of shopping malls, but this campus center treats a dining hall, a gym, a fitness center, mailboxes, and a bookstore as its anchor tenants, located in different parts of the building with adjacencies and sightlines carefully considered. At the same time, the goal was to make the building a living room for the campus—hence the wood trims and the stone fireplace, with its chimney reaching up through the building. Another goal was to assure that the building would be vibrant throughout the day and into the night, so meeting rooms can be converted into performance spaces, and the fireplace lounge can be opened into both the café and the sports café to create a large space for events.

(Photos: Brian G. Winchester)

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