Princeton University Residential Colleges / TenBerke

TenBerke has completed two new residential colleges at Princeton University, each serving 510 students. The 485,000 square-foot project sits on 11 acres and represents a major expansion of the campus and a first step in their 2026 Campus Framework Plan. The project is TenBerke’s most ambitious completed work to date—not just in size but also in mission. Since opening in the fall of 2022, it has given architectural expression to Princeton’s commitment to ground its social life in a campus characterized by inclusion and belonging. As a capstone project in Princeton’s 40-year implementation of a residential college system—the buildings are the seventh and eighth colleges on campus—it achieves the university’s longstanding objective to have all undergraduates affiliated (and, for the most part, living in) four-year residential colleges. By strengthening social identities through the residential college community, the project recenters campus social life within the colleges, providing a counterbalance to options elsewhere. As the institution looks to grow its student body, the new residential colleges are designed to be approachable and inclusive: easy to navigate, easy to find your place, easy to make your own. Altogether, the new colleges enrich the daily lives of undergraduates across all four years of college with spaces for socializing, dining, making, living, and learning.