PYATOK:::SPRING 2008

Oakland, CA
90-Students
Townhouse Suites

Berkeley, CA
120-Students
4-Person Suites

Berkeley, CA
220-Students
4-Person Suites

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In recent years, Pyatok Architects has developed award-winning affordable, market rate, and student housing; multi-use facilities; preservation projects; and TODs.


	For UC Merced, we created a lively community for 350 young people leaving home for the first time and entering an agricultural region that has few shops and little nightlife. Two residence halls incorporate indoor and outdoor spaces for students to convene, study, celebrate and enjoy each other's company as they collect their first memories of living away from home. Bedrooms for 2-3 students are in clusters of ten rooms, 5 for men and 5 for women, so that freshman can develop the social bonds forged from smaller-group living and avoid isolated withdrawal. Corridors have gathering areas for each cluster of ten rooms, along with small public window seats where students may have quiet cell-phone conversations, work on

AS IN ALL HUMAN ENDEAVORS, contradictions abound that must find some resolution through reasoned design. Clients want new environments that achieve levels of comfort and delight superior to the past, yet also use less energy, water and material resources than in the past. When designing for students, we have found these same two seemingly conflicting tendencies. On the one hand, universities and colleges compete with each other to be superior to the private market, creating durable residential environments that are spacious, comfortable, inspiring homes supportive of quiet study time and academic learning. The places must support memorable social events expected by youth–all contributing to the cherished memories that are part of the‘ college experience’. This competition is adding higher levels of comfort and amenity along with attractive architectural expression, a far cry from the utilitarian‘ dorms’ of the past..

On the other hand, universities also encourage architects to design buildings that embrace an ethic of discipline and self-control to achieve a more sustainable environment, encouraging students in their own efforts to carry those values through the rest of their lives when using natural resources. Residence halls must conserve energy; use the sun to generate hot water and electricity; use toilet and laundry fixtures that conserve water, even recycle grey water; recycle all forms of trash and compost organic wastes; perhaps even tap into natural, stable underground temperatures to reduce energy for heating and cooling buildings. User manuals are being created to support students in maintaining their home’s energy, water and waste efficiencies, with monitoring devices displayed in lobbies so residents can see how they are performing in their environmental stewardship.


	Community colleges, typically commuter schools, rarely build residence halls. With growing numbers of international students and returning older students looking for 'college' experiences, Lane CC decided to create an off-campus academic and residential experience in downtown Eugene, a few miles from its main campus. Located together is a residence for 175 students, and an academic building with classrooms and lecture halls for LCC’s Energy Studies Program and other curricula. Working with SRG Partnership and Robertson Sherwood Architects, we created a place that will nourish a smaller student community within a larger stimulating downtown, which in turn will add to the downtown's vitality.


	laptops or relax with friends outside of their rooms. A group of five clusters has a shared multi-purpose lounge with expansive views of the surrounding countryside. Students can socialize while doing chores, in attractive and comfortable ground floor laundry rooms adjacent to lounges. At the main entry to the complex is a deli for residents and commuting students. With a lively, colorful and climate-responsive exterior, we are hearing from housing staff that students have quickly grown fond and proud of their new home, and are experiencing those memorable events that create active alumni. Rated as LEED Gold, the building is teaching students how to maintain a life that conserves water and electricity, and to value recycling and composting.

IN THIS NEWSLETTER, we show a few of our recent student residences, the results of our clients' efforts to find that reasoned balance between expected levels of comfort and lowered environmental impacts. The UC Merced residence halls, which house about 350 freshmen, include some academic and recreational facilities, and are on their way to LEED Gold. Lane Community College will house about 270 students off campus in downtown Eugene linked to an academic facility, and will become LEED Silver. In addition, we mention three on-campus residence halls for Mills College which house about 90 students around an intimate courtyard populated with edible plants, and two UC Berkeley off-campus residence halls for about 350 upper division undergrads, fitting respectfully into one of Berkeley’s historic neighborhoods. Their density is an example of compact, sustainable infill housing. Each development attempts to provide an enjoyable, social place for students that will live on as a cherished memory of alumni, while imparting a life-long respect for the planet through conservation and sustainable behavior.

The Summits


	Most apartments have 4 single bedrooms with 2 bathrooms and a communal dining/living room with kitchen. The living area is equipped with a flat-screen TV to counter the isolating tendency of personal rooms and today's array of personal electronic devices. The lobby is connected to a multi-purpose lounge opening onto an interior court. Near each elevator landing is a transparent study lounge and laundry room so residents can casually meet each other and monitor access to their floor. Expected to be LEED Silver, the apartment building provides students with a ‘dashboard’ in the main lobby, noting their monthly and daily use of water and electricity, and also of the quantity of material waste as a measure of their overall consumption patterns.

Recent projects are located in communities throughout the Bay Area, Southern CA, the Central Valley; Washington, Arizona, Hawaii; the Philipines and Malaysia.

PYATOK ARCHITECTS 1611 Telegraph Avenue Suite 200, Oakland, CA 94612 P. 510.465.7010 F. 510.465.8575