Title: Orchard Residence Hall
Location of Proejct: Media, PA
Project Completion Date: 2017
Firm Name: Clark Nexsen

Short Description: As the first residence hall for a commuter college, Orchard Hall transforms the campus into a thriving living-learning community connected to nature. Anchored to a steep wooded hillside, the new facility creates two new campus paths – an entrance path leading to a multi-level gathering space and a campus path to the new student union. The buildings form responds to these paths and is composed of L-shaped forms inserted into the hill that elevate two floating volumes. The floating volumes house the primary quiet study spaces and form a series of engaging public gathering spaces for the new residential community.

Architect's Statement: Threshold to the Forest

The building’s form is derived from how public space engages the students with the forest and land. On the ground floor, the principal public spaces are located where the two new public paths meet, forming a series of interlocking interior and exterior gathering spaces. The main public space is a double-height transparent lobby that serves as a threshold between the academic campus and forest. The campus path continues through the lobby and extends onto an outdoor terrace, allowing students multiple opportunities to interact, play and study while enjoying views of the meadow grasses and forest floor.

Form and Materiality
Designed on a tight state budget, the building is constructed of cost-effective standard building systems; however, the design goes beyond the ordinary to create unique expressions of form, structure, and materiality to merge architecture and landscape. The two “Land” forms hold back the earth and respond to the shape of the angled hillside but also gently cradle the floating “Elevated” volumes that house the residential meeting and study spaces. The “Land-mass” forms are a rough wire-cut gray masonry that engage with the landscape while the “elevated” volumes are smooth, terracotta colored stacked brick.

Engaging Public Space with the Forest

The program for the 250-bed residence hall is used to create a series of vibrant public spaces for the living-learning community throughout the building. The ground floor is designed to create synergies between the public spaces and forest floor through the lobby, multi-purpose rooms, kitchen and laundry. A double height lobby space was located at the center allowing for the spaces to be interconnected with each other and with views to the outside. The design seeks to engage the forest canopy in the design of the interior meeting and study spaces. On the upper levels of the building, the “Elevated” volumes are carved at the ends to create the quiet study spaces that frame panoramic views of the forest. These spaces also double as lanterns at night, illuminating the public paths and the residential neighborhood.


Elevating Repetitive-Unique

The architecture of Orchard Hall takes cues from the existing masonry campus buildings but seeks to create a new dynamic language that expresses the energy of student life. The building’s geometry and structure are composed from the modular unit of the residential bedroom; however, this highly repetitive unit is given a rich composition by employing an asymmetric fenestration pattern. Variety is achieved by composing various-sized window groupings to play with rhythms of light, mass, void, and transparency. Each room receives a tall, narrow operable window for ventilation and a larger fixed window for views. This asymmetrical window layout allows for more syncopated patterns that express the energy of student life. To further accentuate the dynamic nature of the elevated bars, the landmass forms use a simple fenestration pattern which creates a counterpoint to the rhythmic composition of the elevated bars.

Framework for Design Excellence

This residential hall project was designed to serve a population of minority students and economically challenged college students that live in generally poorer areas around Philadelphia. As the first residential hall on this commuter campus, it provides a new opportunity for these and gives them access to a thriving living learning community and to socialize and learn from each in the new facility while being close to home.

The building design team used a very integrative design approach to create a project focused on maximizing energy performance, reducing both operational and embodied carbon and protecting and preserving natural resources of water and land. The site design pays careful attention to capturing stormwater through bioretention ponds to protect the adjacent creek. Indigenous grasses, bushes and trees were selected to eliminate any need for irrigation and to maximize biodiversity and habitat creation. The project further preserves water by reducing water consumption through the use of low flow and dual flush fixtures.

The energy performance was optimized using energy recovery, hot-water return circulators, chilled water and heating systems with a variable flowrate, and a water source heat pump. Energy demands were reduced using high-efficient equipment, LED lighting throughout, and occupancy sensors. Energy was carefully monitored throughout the process using enhanced commissioning, enhanced refrigerant management with measurement and verification processes.

Materials were carefully selected to reduce the building’s embodied carbon by using regional materials and recycled content interior and exterior finishes and building systems. The wellness of the building occupants was also carefully considered. The design maximizes daylight and views, uses all low-emitting materials and finishes, and provides controllability of each of the rooms with operable windows.

The project received LEED Silver but more importantly the building was designed to enhance the lives of the students to provide a place connected to nature, with views of the sunrise and sunset through the forest canopy.