THE STUDY AT YALE

CORB TO KAHN

A formerly canary yellow motor hotel is transformed and given new swagger on a key New Haven site.

SERENDIPITOUS CATALYST

The project to transform a former motor court on the edge of Yale into a unique campus-oriented hotel resulted from the architect’s repeated trips to the university for business and personal reasons, coupled with an entrepreneurial eye. The result – a series of unsolicited advocacy sketches – attracted the attention of a dynamic hotelier from New York and catalyzed the hotel project.

MAGNETIZING THE SPACE BETWEEN

The resulting Study at Yale ‘faces off’ across Chapel Street from the Yale School of Art’s new building, magnetizing the space between the two.

STREET AS STAGE, HOTEL LOBBY AS CINEMATIC FRAME

This also enables the metaphor of the street between as stage; the hotel’s horizontal glazed lobby wall with its syncopated rhythm of clear and multicoloured window lights is read from the street at night as a large playful picture frame or proscenium. During daytime, the relationship is inverted. In this way the building relates to its environment and encourages interaction with it.

BASIC STUDY ROOMS

The rooms are well appointed yet simple and outfitted with generous built-in study spaces.