In student residence hall planning, some program elements rarely get the TLC they need. Bookstore? Printing center? Mail room? Often devoid of ideas and squeezed into otherwise unusable ground floor space. Not so at Bates College.

Situated at the south edge of the Bates campus, Kalperis and Chu Halls, designed by Ann Beha Architects, formed a central green space and campus gateway. Kalperis Hall was identified as a prime location for using student services to activate the building’s ground level. As design partners with ABA, Bergmeyer’s assignment was to reimagine the humble book store, printing center, and mail room as desirable student destinations.
The design approach: co-locate the three functions as a seamless whole, and take advantage of the program synergies. The new printing center (appropriately named “Print”) was designed to do packaging and sign printing, and to create custom cards to be sold in the adjacent bookstore. The new mail room, or “Post”, offers coupons so that people can purchase items at the bookstore, walk into Print to create mailing labels, and ship packages at a discount.

Given the realities of email and Amazon, the design team saw the greatest potential for change in the mail room itself. The opportunity to reduce the floor area of a conventional mail room was considerable. Instead of a large room filled with personalized mailboxes, a rack of a few folders effectively handled all of the students’ physical mail. A simple bin system was designed to organize in/out packages, relying on email/text notification to students by bin number when packages were ready for pickup. Flowing seamlessly into one bright, contiguous space, “Post & Print” became a place for students to gather and share in the excitement of getting new stuff as a social experience.

The new bookstore was also co-located with Post & Print. Its cash counter was designed as if it were a café, modern wood cladding and warm lighting makes it a casual atmosphere. In the graphics and signage, the spirit of the college comes through with big, bold images of the Bates brand – its logotype, bobcat mascot, and signature garnet color.

Now hosting up to 1,500 visitors per day, the (formerly) modest resident support functions were transformed into a hub for campus life.