The SITE

Central Location, Community Integration

Aerial view of new residential colleges site (bottom) and nearby Science Hill.

The new residential colleges will occupy the area just south of Ingalls Rink. This location will accommodate two new communities of freshmen and upperclassmen, with all the features of Yale’s existing colleges: separate dining halls and common rooms, courtyards, masters’ houses, and student suites built on an entryway system. Each of the new colleges will be approximately 220,000 square feet.

Significantly, the facilities will create a new sense of Yale’s geography by enlarging the footprint of Yale College and shortening the perceived distance between Science Hill (A) and the historic center of campus (B). To this end, plans are under way to convert Sterling Chemistry Laboratory (C) into a new Undergraduate Science Center that will host tutoring programs supporting Yale’s new distributional requirements.

The reconfigured Sterling Chemistry Laboratory will include classroom space for both seminars and lectures and room for a major exercise facility and a café serving faculty and students. Yale will make the most of this opportunity, scheduling the new teaching space in ways that make Science Hill a destination for undergraduates of every major.

In addition to the Undergraduate Science Center, Yale aims to create “stepping stones” to the new colleges and add amenities that bring students and faculty to the neighborhood. The Rose Center (D) and a new home for the Yale University Health Services (E) will transform Lock Street into an attractive pedestrian passage from Morse, Ezra Stiles, and Payne Whitney Gym (F) to Science Hill and the site of the new colleges. Rosenkranz Hall (G), the social science building rising behind Luce Hall, will provide a new anchor for Prospect Street.

Other planned facilities include a student café, more classroom space, exercise facilities, a theater, rehearsal space, and meeting space for student organizations. Yale is also working to strengthen shuttle bus service, enhance security, and improve the sidewalks and intersections along Prospect Street.