Champlain College Residential Quad Receives AIA VT Award

Champlain College’s new residential quad was honored this December with the AIA VT Honor Award of Excellence.  

The 370-bed residential quad includes three new residence halls: Juniper, Valcour and Butler. Each residence hall is designed to be sustainable and contextually sensitive to both the external-facing historic neighborhood and the internal contemporary nature of the campus.  Adding to the planned transformation from a commuter-focused school to a residential campus, the new residential quad provides an engaging common green space, pedestrian spine/promenade, and landscaped common community areas.

This year’s AIA VT award honorees were chosen from 275 entries from New England firms for projects located anywhere in the world, and from firms outside New England for buildings located in the region. The jury specifically considered: does a project demonstrate its sense of purpose, does it read at a depth of scales, and does it show restraint?  Another major determining factor was how clear entrants were about the problem and how well they articulated the solution.

CBT’s design for Champlain’s new residential quad impressed the jury for many of the same reasons that Burlingtonians appreciate it. Replacing an existing parking lot with three appropriately scaled new residence halls instead of one gigantic building, plus a brand new public green space. The jury also praised the project’s thoughtful integration to the historic Burlington neighborhood character, noting the public facing facades echo the neighborhood’s modest-gable-roof homes, while the internal facing facades take on a more a contemporary architectural expression and create a separate internal identity reflective of the energy of today’s student life experience.

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