Macalester College | Residence Hall & Welcome Center

A New Residential Experience

The new residence hall establishes a new front door to the college, underscoring Macalester’s distinction as a liberal arts college located in a vibrant city, committed to community engagement, global citizenship and social justice.

As the largest capital project to come out of the 2023 Comprehensive Campus Plan, the new 5-story building creates a new welcoming front door for campus visitors on a unique, tight urban site along St. Paul’s Grand Avenue. Four stories of pod-style residential living units are designed to extend the ability for students to live on campus as upper-level students. Communal kitchens and student lounge spaces are situated to foster student community while providing single and double-room occupancy bedrooms to provide independence and autonomy.

The ground-floor welcome center includes a new home for the College’s admission department and will be the first stop for prospective students and their parents visiting campus. A coffee shop and student “living room”–available to students across campus–activates the street level and celebrates Macalester’s unique location within the city. Sustainability is a key driver for the project including an investment in geothermal wells that will provide sustainable energy to heat and cool the building.

Site programming includes development of a signature green space to be outfitted with native plants that help articulate the College’s Indigenous Land Action Statement. The structural system of the building combines mass-timber CLT planks with stick-built wood framing to reduce the building’s overall embodied carbon contribution.