Text by SGA

Located in a sprawling redwood forest in northern California, Kresge College has been a bold experiment in student-driven education since 1971. Its original “hill town” campus by Charles Moore and William Turnbull created a bright, playful village within the forest, anchored by a winding pedestrian street, where students could test out new ways for living and learning in community. Today, as the College approaches fifty, Studio Gang’s renewal project aims to reinvigorate the Kresge campus as a vital, experimental environment for education—still independent-minded and free-spirited, but no longer so isolated and inward-facing.

Today, as the College approaches fifty, Studio Gang’s renewal project aims to reinvigorate the Kresge campus as a vital, experimental environment for education—still independent-minded and free-spirited, but no longer so isolated and inward-facing. Through a combination of renovation (12 buildings) and new construction (4 buildings) that builds on a master plan, the project restores the integrity and community spirit of the original design while simultaneously opening it up to embrace students of all abilities, the incredible natural ecology of its site, and the larger university community beyond.

At the campus scale, the project extends the original pedestrian street into a loop path. This includes incorporating accessible pathways and, at specific moments, turning the inward-facing street outward to connect with the surrounding forest and other portions of the university. Most of the original buildings and smaller structures like the well-loved Mayor’s Stand are left intact, but are renovated and updated to improve their durability and environmental performance.

The project’s four new buildings do not replicate Moore and Turnbull’s architecture, but rather engage it in a dialogue that complements its rectilinear, angular language with a more organic one of curvature and porosity. All of the new buildings are sited and designed to minimize the removal of redwood trees by bending around important groves and nestling into the topography. At the north end of campus, a new academic building with lecture halls, classrooms, and workspaces negotiates its steep site by simultaneously stepping down the slope and flaring out—bringing fresh air, natural light, and views of the forested ravine into the interior. At the campus’ west side, a set of three new residential buildings accommodates Kresge’s growing student population. Bending and opening toward the forest, they preserve a scale of community similar to the original residence halls.

Aligning Kresge’s built structures to work with nature to reduce carbon footprint is a key component of the renewal project. The redwood canopy, for example, provides shade that reduces cooling loads, and abundant operable windows take advantage of the mild climate to further passive cooling and bring in natural ventilation. To minimize water demand, the design rehabilitates and expands Kresge’s historic runnel system, allowing circulation pathways to work with the site’s topography and ecology to direct, capture, and filter stormwater for reuse. The renewal project’s subtle changes to the original campus buildings, when combined with the newly-designed facilities and amenities, together add up to a significant improvement in environmental performance—as well as a greater appreciation for the original architecture and bold forays into the College’s current and future resilience.