Newest York Hill Housing Opens

CENTERBROOK, Conn. -- More than 730 Quinnipiac University students have begun moving into the newly completed west wing of the Centerbrook-designed Crescent Residence Hall and five nearby townhouses on the school’s scenic York Hill Campus. Last year, Crescent’s east wing opened with 520 beds for juniors and seniors.

Set on a hilltop in Hamden, Connecticut, the York Hill has commanding views to the south of New Haven and Long Island Sound as well as surrounding hills. Crescent curves gently on one side of the campus, backing up to the woods to the west and affording views of the campus and beyond. It is one of three campuses of Quinnipiac University, which has a total enrollment of 5,700 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate and law school students.

Centerbrook Architects designed the 400,300-square-foot Crescent Residence Hall and the adjacent townhouses – as well as the other facilities on Quinnipiac University’s new campus, including the 85,000-square-foot Rocky Top Student Center. York Hill also features a wind terrace with 25 vertical-axis turbines and a 2,000-car parking garage. The TD Bank Sports Center for the university’s Division I hockey and basketball teams opened in 2007. The East View Residence Hall, currently under construction, will open in the fall of 2011 and house 178 students.

In addition to wind power, Centerbrook designed an array of sustainable features into York Hill. Solar photovoltaic panels on the Crescent dormitory provide electricity, and at East View a geothermal ground source heat pump assists with heating and cooling. The new Student Center houses a highly efficient, gas-fired cogeneration micro-turbine that produces both electricity and heat for the campus. Other green approaches include water and maintenance efficient landscaping, maximum use of on site materials and wastewater management and treatment.

Centerbrook had been the architect for more than 45 projects at Quinnipiac University dating to the 1970s.