In 2017 NADAAA completed a Master Plan for a 3.5-acre hillside block at The Rhode Island School of Design. The project included planning for 88,000 square feet of renovated residence and associated spaces as well as the addition of 40,000 square feet of new residential space and the creation of a new quad green. After the Master Plan was completed NADAAA carried out the multi-phased Quad project using the Integrated Project Delivery Method, ultimately creating a more safe, vibrant, and inclusive Quad Block for RISD’s freshman classes.

Developed in the 1950’s RISD’s core freshman campus was designed by local architects Cull, Robinson and Green with architect Pietro Belluschi as consultant within an urban composition of three buildings: Nickerson Dormitory, Homer Dormitory, and the Refectory (The Met) coming together around a series of terraces with views to downtown Providence. These survived intact for several decades until the forces of expansion introduced East Hall and South Hall on the southern side of the dormitories compromising the public nature of their collective spaces. The Master Plan set out to reclaim those public spaces while making all the buildings accessible to all students.

FUNDAMENTAL GOALS From initial iterative design studies, and with the help of the various stakeholder groups, seven fundamental goals were defined and used to shape the Master Plan as well as the resulting built projects.
Unify The Freshman Quad
Address Deferred Maintenance
Maximize Accessibility
Create Residences For Artists
Provide Student-Centered Common Space
Inspire A Culture Of Sustainability
Improve Campus & City Connections

The process included input from a range of stakeholders including the Social Equity Action Working Group, Student Affairs, Residence Life, Disability Services, and Counseling Services to solve problems such as weak connections to the surrounding urban fabric, lack of common social spaces, shortage of artist work spaces, poor accessibility, and desire for more display space. Responding to stakeholder commentary, the plan included a robust system of workspaces, storage lockers, and larger dormitory units, maximizing the opportunity for student self-expression.

UNIFY THE FRESHMAN QUAD The primary vision of the Master Plan was that a RISD Commons composed of spaces of leisure, studios, crit spaces, and food services, would serve to embed accessible passages connecting the RISD Beach to Homer Hall, The Met, Nickerson Hall, and a new residence hall in a seamless itinerary to bind them together in an architectural promenade.

One of the most characteristic spaces of Providence is the RISD Beach with Pietro Belluschi’s perforated brick façade giving an abstract perforated front to this important public space. It is this brick that will continue to unify the Quad campus and act as the tectonic glue to the site. The brick serves as retaining walls, pilasters, and was deployed on the façades of both the north and south faces of the new residence hall.

ADDRESS DEFERRED MAINTENANCE As part of the Master Plan project, NADAAA renovated both Homer and Nickerson Halls. The design focused on going beyond needed code, structural, and envelope improvements to create building enhancements to support art students and RISD’s vision for a sustainable future with the inclusion of community and artist workspaces, renovation and expansion of the dormitory units into the unused space of the existing balconies, new glazed façade systems, repairs to the brick façades, repairs to the original roofs, repairs to the buildings’ structures, as well as the surgical introduction of ramps and elevators.

Both Nickerson Hall and Homer Hall were deemed to require full gut renovations to update the existing systems as well as provide the quality residential amenities necessary for a contemporary residence hall for young artists.

Above: An example of a typical renovated housing floor. In both the renovated halls, the balconies were appropriated for dorm rooms allowing wider corridors within to incorporate small kitchens, art material storage, and connections to common spaces and work rooms.

MAXIMIZE ACCESSIBILITY Located on a steep hillside, the existing Quad was inaccessible. Only one floor of the residence halls and two floors of the Refectory could be reached from the single handicap ramp on Angell Street via exposed outdoor routes. All of the proposed Master Plan options integrated a fully accessible route from the lowest point of the site to the upper most point on Prospect Street and this was realized in the built projects by strategically using ramps, elevators, and lifts. Wheelchair access is now possible throughout the complex of buildings without needing to go outside.

CREATE RESIDENCES FOR ARTISTS The design features common spaces for socializing, making, reflecting, and creative expression, tailored to meet the varied needs of today’s art and design students. The building includes spaces that facilitate interaction through a studio/fabrication space, gallery spaces, as well a spray booth and bike storage.

PROVIDE STUDENT-CENTERED COMMON SPACE In addition to the common spaces on each residence level, the Quad Master Plan included kitchens, a game room, computer labs, laundry, vending, interior bike storage, music rooms, and a rooftop garden.

INSPIRE A CULTURE OF SUSTAINABILITY Critical to the conception of this project are building technologies that adopt composite systems to bring out the best of optimal material use. For instance, by having a hybrid steel structure with cross-laminated timber infill (the first hybrid CLT/steel housing project in New England), we were able to gain 9’ high raw wood ceilings, without the need of added finishes.

IMPROVE CAMPUS & CITY CONNECTIONS While two of the major goals of the Quad Master Plan were to create a new hub for the RISD Campus and a familiar place for all RISD Freshman, RISD is still a campus in the city. The planning strategies for the Quad emphasize rituals and connections to other RISD buildings in the city instead of creating an insular Quad.

The new landscape from RISD Beach to the new Nickerson Green is a cohesive flow of immersive/rhythmic spatial experiences of varied character in scale, privacy, and interest. The landscape amplifies connectivity with the accessible approach to the new entrances.

PROJECT TEAM
Principals: Nader Tehrani; Katherine Faulkner, AIA; Arthur Chang, AIA
Team: Matthew Waxman; Gretchen Neeley, AIA; Nathan Vice; Richard Lee; Lisa LaCharité; Aaron Weller; Tim Wong; Monica Burckhardt, Nicole Sakr, Adiel Benitez

With Janet Stegman and Michael Blier, FASLA