The Evolution of the College Dorm

This annotated slide show is Time magazine's story of the move from libraries surrounded by walls to modern campus residence life: "From the monastic rooms of world's first campuses to today's luxury residence halls, Time examines the ever-changing ways that students live." Interviews and captions by M.J. Stephey. This is slide number 8 of 15:

Old Meets New

The cinder-block dorms of the 1950s were ill-equipped to handle the computer revolution of the 1980s. Re-wiring buildings became an expensive and drawn-out task, as did equipping their residents. Of today's college students, writer Nicholas Carr says, "Facebook is the dorm; Wikipedia is the library; and Craigslist is the mall." Here, a freshman at Drexel University shows off a gift from her alma mater; in 1985, the school issued each incoming student a new Macintosh computer. In 2004, Duke University spent half a million to greet its freshmen with iPods. Many schools now require students to purchase computers or laptops before the school year begins.

Art College's New Dormitory Turns a Challenging Site to Advantage

This Chronicle Buildings & Grounds blog post contains many nice images of this distinctive residence:

The result is a building that in ways both subtle and clever balances the college’s needs nicely against the community’s. Openings in the building’s main drum allow passersby to glimpse the interior and frame the best views for the students inside, so that the building feels open to the city around it—as indeed it is, since the cafe and gallery will welcome the public. At the same time, the building downplays the site’s less appealing views and cuts down traffic noise, and a carefully-sited guard desk offers security without seeming heavy-handed.