Who wants to doze in a dormitory when you can thrive in a “house in the woods?”
When architectural firms Ayers Saint Gross and Amenta Emma Architects set out to design Bryant’s new Puishys Residence Complex, the task was at once straightforward — provide a concept for housing 204 juniors and seniors — and nuanced.
The brief from the university called for the complex to be a physical expression of the institution’s commitment to fostering a sense of belonging, so the 85,000-square-foot facility not only had to incorporate student apartments but also spaces that bring students together to socialize and collaborate.
In the words of Inge-Lise Ameer, Ed.D., Bryant’s vice president and dean of students, “The unique design of the facility, with its open lounges, study rooms, and outdoor areas, will create opportunities for students to build connections, engage with one another, and develop lifelong friendships.”
The physical location of the Puishys Residence Complex near the Tupper campus entrance also meant that it would be a showcase for the university from the day it opened.
“It’s a gateway project,” says Matt Pearson, AIA, the Ayers Saint Gross associate principal architect on the project. “It’s what you see when you first come on campus.”
All told, a pretty tall order for an architectural design team. Not to mention that the chosen site was a sloping, wooded hillside that would require extensive groundwork and landscaping to ensure it blended comfortably with its natural environment; the project also had a “can’t-miss” opening date for Bryant’s move-in day for the 2025-26 academic year.
Rather than fight the topography, Ayers Saint Gross chose to incorporate it into the design, says Pearson.
“The idea of a ‘house in the woods’ is where we started,” he says, noting that Ayers Saint Gross also was responsible for designing the complex's housing master plan, landscaping, and hardscape features. “That gave us the opportunity to experiment with some new materials on this project. The landscape design is very extensive, and this is a project where the exterior spaces are just as important as the interior spaces.”
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Of course, a house in the woods and an apartment building in the woods aren’t exactly the same thing.
“We separated the mass of the building from a big block into two wings, and we used the topography to our advantage so we could step down the site from where it’s seen as you approach campus,” Pearson explains.
The three-story skywalk connecting the twin residences — Pine Hall and Woodlands Hall — is perhaps the complex’s most distinctive feature and has a greater purpose than bridging the gap between the buildings.
“We wanted to have a good degree of transparency, so we used as much glass as we could so that you could actually see through the walkway,” Pearson says, noting that both the buildings and skywalk are oriented to allow in as much natural light as possible.
Accessibility was a key consideration as the architects sought to balance the design with students’ needs (including those with mobility limitations) who needed to move in and out of the complex daily to attend classes, get food, and take part in extracurricular activities.
A gently curved path that crosses a wide pedestrian bridge serves as the main entry point from the Tupper Campus side of the complex.
“That leads to the passageway under the glass bridge that defines the main entrance to the buildings — you get some nice prevailing breezes through there, as well, so it’s a very comfortable space,” says Pearson.
Form and function also intersected in the project with the extensive use of cross-laminated timber (CLT), an engineered wood product made of several layers of dimensional lumber glued together in alternating, perpendicular directions.
“We had a very tight schedule, so we elected to go with steel frame construction,” recalls Pearson. “It’s very much like an Erector set: you can get the steel pieces up very quickly, and most of the flooring is CLT wood plank. The floor was laid in three days, which would have taken two or three weeks if it were a concrete metal deck.”
The CLT, visible in many places in the building, adds a touch of organic material to the interior design. On the exterior, Ayers Saint Gross used textured grey brick to present a more rustic look than what might be achieved by cladding the buildings entirely in the red brick more typically found in campus settings.
You can’t have a house in the woods without trees, and the original plan for the complex called for the retention of a large number of trees already extant on the site. Though fire code restrictions resulted in more trees being removed than originally planned, the design team has already planted more than 100 trees in and around the site. "There are firs and pines and maples, all in keeping with what you’d typically see in Rhode Island," says Pearson.
Even the stormwater system helps enhance the complex’s sense of place: water running down the hillside is collected in landscaped retention ponds and flows through a channel that resembles a natural stream, passing under the pedestrian bridge as it courses through the property.
“There’s always a close connection to the woods and the outdoors wherever you are in the complex, and especially in the corner apartments on the fourth and fifth floors, where you get great views across campus,” Pearson says.
“There’s always a close connection to the woods and the outdoors wherever you are in the complex."
Bryant’s famously peaceful, leafy setting also plays a starring role once residents of the step out the “back door” of the Puishys Residence Complex and onto the terraced patio area, designed to be a central gathering place for the Bryant community.
“One of the things that we are charged with at our firm is positively impacting residential life,” says Pearson. “When you have thoughtfully designed places for students to meet, collaborate, study, live, and sleep, to grow and develop knowledge and friendship together, it helps with student retention. It helps with GPA. It helps with your outlook on life.
“It starts with thoughtfully designed buildings and a great university vision, which is what Bryant has,” he says. “We're just happy to be a part of it.”