Original Purpose

Built on an excavated, sunken site, the six-story Grad Center was originally planned to house unmarried graduate students who, by the mid- to late-1960s were growing in number and were increasingly having difficulty finding comfortable, affordable places to live close to campus. The atypical appearance of the structure is due largely to its interesting interior arrangement. The most commonly cited trait of the buildings is the unusually narrow and dark maze of corridors and stairwells within the residence towers. The Boston-based firm of Shepley, Bullfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, accustomed to designing for government, academic, and medical institutions, approached the project as a way to tackle the stereotype of student housing as long, boring hallways with endless doors on either side that lead into rectangular rooms. Instead, they wanted to create an exciting and dynamic space that would foster community but that would also serve as a quiet, convenient place for graduate students to live and study.

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