In the fall of 2010, LTL, in collaboration with Quinn Evans Architects and
SIGAL Construction, won the commission for a residential and educational center
on the Gallaudet University campus, known as the Living
and Learning Residence Hall 6 (LLRH6). As the only liberal arts university
dedicated to the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, Gallaudet wanted
to create an exemplary building tailored to deaf, cognitive, linguistic and
cultural ways-of-being. LTL worked closely with representatives of the school to
incorporate the challenges and opportunities of DeafSpace design principles.
These guidelines were developed by the university’s ASL and Deaf Studies Department,
under the direction of architect Hansel Bauman. In expanding the program to
include public gathering spaces and in locating the hall directly on the
historic mall, Gallaudet sought to change the current separation between the residential
and academic components of the campus, reactivating the mall as the center of vibrant
university life.The building is comprised of four floors--
accommodating 173 residents, four faculty and one graduate
advisor--located above a ground floor learning volume which houses all
the public areas of the project, including a large terraced living room,
classrooms, offices and a flexible collaboration studio.