In a normative student housing complex, the double loaded corridor provides each unit with only one exterior wall. To deliver energy efficiency, this configuration requires a suite of design strategies that separate the interior from the exterior world. The resulting housing unit delivers a quality of life more typical of Chicago or Toronto than of Pasadena, a contained and controlled interior that acts as a refuge from the outdoors and the outside world. L+U provided energy, shading, orientation, and comfort analysis at an early stage of the design to enable greater connection to the outdoors and occupant awareness of the environment. The single loaded corridor gives each unit two exterior walls and the design concentrates the dense services and utilities into an efficient core providing separation of the living areas one unit from another. With two exterior walls, the energy conserving strategies emphasize a controlled and variable connection between the inside and the outside, utilizing the natural site energies.

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Sculptural sunshades and seismic bracing shelter the access corridors and the dorms behind.