The placement of a 4-story, 300-bed residence hall at the edge of campus defines the edge between the developed campus landscape and surrounding natural habitat. In response, the building and landscape design were thoughtfully designed to preserve as much of the existing woodlands as possible, and to extend the vocabulary of the natural habitat into the campus. Impacted woodlands were restored with native plantings and a meadow, thus improving the site’s ecological value and reducing the College’s long-term maintenance demands.
 
Conceived as a social and recreation space, a mounded open lawn with a naturalistic arrangement of trees invites students to socialize, study or simply find respite in the outdoors. A seat wall, along the edge of the space facing the front porch of the Wayback residence hall, reinforces its identity as a people place.