THE OPPORTUNITY

Rutgers University’s Honors College program housing and offices were spread out across the four New Brunswick area campuses. In order to create a more welcoming and immersive experience for freshman students entering the Honors program, Rutgers desired to construct a new facility that would combine housing for freshman Honors students with housing for the Honors College Dean and select faculty members, as well as centralized offices and seminar spaces for the Honors program - a true learning community.

THE CHALLENGE

To construct the first new dormitory / instructional space on the College Avenue campus in 50 years, the University struck a redevelopment deal that acquired new land from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary as the site for the Honors College building. PS&S provided MEP/FP and Site Civil Engineering consulting services to the developer.

THE PS&S SOLUTION

The building has two five-story wings and a third wing of five stories plus lower level. The upper floors are dormitory housing for Honors College freshman students (540 beds), while the ground floor provides meeting / seminar rooms, lounge space, apartment style housing for the Honors College Dean and other faculty members, and centralized office space for the University’s Honors program. The HVAC system uses water-source heat pumps provided with a cooling tower (concealed within a clock tower) for heat rejection and heat exchangers from the University’s high temperature hot water loop for heat addition. The project included calculations and documentation to demonstrate that window openings of less than 4% floor area would still provide adequate natural ventilation for the sleeping rooms. The project received LEED Silver Certification, and was part of the College Avenue Redevelopment Initiative project at Rutgers, which received the 2016 – 2017 Innovative School Project of the Year award from the New Jersey Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.