Clemson University reimagines section of campus

A 700-bed project at Clemson University will reconstruct a large swath of campus, enabling the university to check off a major to-do item in its 2002 campus master plan.

The Core Campus Housing project, led by VMDO Architects, includes the demolition and replacement of three major buildings in the middle of the campus. The work is expected to wrap up in 2016.

VMDO have collaborated with Stevens & Wilkinson and Sasaki Associates for a project that includes 260,000 square feet of new construction and 700 beds, according to a Stevens & Wilkinson press release. Specifically, that work will include 179,000 square feet of residential space, 76,000 square feet of dining space and 5,000 square feet of academic space.

“Beyond square footage and new construction, the project aspires to much more, including the design and development of quality campus life for students and new forms of housing that support the university’s desire for a multi-purpose, mixed-use center of living and learning,” Ashby Gressette, president of Stevens & Wilkinson, said in a statement.

A study accompanying the university’s master plan asked this question: “How might forward-looking approaches to housing, academic, dining, and student life programs be combined into an intense, innovative, and dynamic mixed-use center for Clemson University?”

Gerald Vander May, the university’s director of campus planning, says the design team has answered that question.

“The design fits very well with the Campus Master Plan and has embellished it in ways we could never have otherwise articulated,” May said in a statement. “The program was very challenging, but through innovative problem solving and tireless interaction, the team has taken the complex goals of the university and fashioned a vision that has taken root.”