Urban Plan/Masterplan
The IIT campus is endowed with a preponderance of divisive north-south barriers. The elevated train, State Street, and the expressway are relentlessly axial. It remains essential to the goal of a cohesive campus environment that east-west axis are developed, both in terms of protected circulation routes and in terms of a unifying overlay providing counterpoint to the existing north-south schisms.

The project will define the East edge of the Campus Quadrangle. Forming and defending this open space as the locus of the academic campus will be an essential component of a successful residential development.
Six housing blocks are oriented East-west, creating three entry courts and two Sallyports to future development to the east of the El tracks. Each court is partially closed by screen walls, thereby reinstating the north-south edge required at the Quadrangle.

Contextual Ramifications
The aspects of the El and State Street must be mitigated. Units face north and south and are protected by glass/Soundwalls that shield the eastern exposure. It is intended that the courtyard will be an acoustically comfortable zone allowing students to utilize natural ventilation to a great extent.

Each entry court will be planted with a dense grove of birch. The courtyard microclimate will be distinctive in feel from ambient conditions quieter, less windy, and more reposeful.

Community/Student Life
A deliberate transitional sequence from the hard urbanity of this particular site to the dormitory spaces mitigates the otherwise difficult conditions.

The spacial transition, public, semi-public, semi-private, private is distinctly linked to a sense of identity and address