Connecticut College Project Receives ACUI Design Award

The College Center at Crozier-Williams project has been awarded ACUI’s Facility Design Award - Less Than $25 Million Student Union category. The partial renovation at Connecticut College revived and activated the space as a social hub, making it the symbolic heart of a sustainability-minded academic community.

The re-design pulls inspiration from the College’s identity as an arboretum. The renovation brings the arboretum inside, a unifying concept that employs biophilic and universal design strategies to activate this space, reinforce campus identity, and support student wellness. The renovation included the lobby, the upstairs dining area, downstairs retail dining, attached terrace, and the main event space.

“A campus center is far more than just a building that offers a variety of student programs and services — it represents the heartbeat of student life,” says Petar Mattioni, AIA, LEED AP, Partner at KSS Architects. “At KSS, we strive to deliver transformative design solutions, that evolve underutilized spaces into vibrant community-centered hubs.”

The ACUI Facility Design Awards encourage and recognize excellence in the design of student-centered facilities that support campus community building and student learning.