Because this was a design-build project, its budget was about half the cost of a typical residence hall at a private university. We chose simple vernacular forms to express continuity with its residential neighbors and to act as a foil for the monumental Payne Whitney Gym and the University Power Plant.

The new residence hall continues the Yale residential college tradition of low buildings with towers defining courtyards, vistas and portals. It is brick with a lead-coated copper roof and a mass defined by gables, chimneys, bay windows and dormers. A central courtyard planted with American Elms serves as an outdoor "living room" with informal paths, terraces and seating. The design solves Yale University's dilemma of undertaking extensive renovations to its twelve residential colleges without disrupting the lives of the students who inhabit them. It allows Yale to begin the renovations systematically, one by one, while providing interim housing for the students of each college under renovation. It is the first new residence hall to be built on the campus since 1961.