CCRI Knight Campus Transformation
The Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) recently featured BTGA’s work to transform the Brutalist 1972 Knight Campus of the Community College of Rhode Island in their annual preservation conference highlighting this building. Designed by Perkins + Will, the structure was conceived as a self-contained concrete “ship of knowledge,” with a gangplank entry ramp leading passengers to an inward-facing atrium floor plan. The existing spaces in the megastructure had a cold utilitarian feel, originally bold and exciting but lacking the ability to communicate the 21st-century values of the current institution. With a strategic vision to reinvigorate the campus, our design approach focused on an arrival sequence and the Student Commons. Improvements aid circulation and include layered new materials to create a dramatically different arrival experience that demonstrates CCRI’s commitment to welcoming all students. BTGA recently won the AIAri Merit Award for these successful restoration efforts.
