Looking to enhance its students' residential life experience while gaining capacity and flexibility to address renovation needs in its other dormitories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently constructed New Vassar, a 450 bed residence hall. The five-story, 180,280 sq ft building is located in West Campus on a narrow parcel in Cambridge between the busy Vassar Street corridor and a critical rail link that connects Boston's passenger rail stations. To accommodate the architectural program on the constrained site, building’s footprint is long and narrow: 575 ft by 77 ft. The building’s facade features curtain wall and prefabricated panels with thin brick veneer while the interior features exposed concrete surfaces.

The ground floor of New Vassar includes a dining room, a student kitchen, gathering spaces, exercise spaces, and a maker space. Music practice rooms, a lounge, and study rooms are tucked into a mezzanine overlooking the dining room. On the second through fifth floors, the structure is organized into four clusters of dormitory rooms connected by a corridor along the rear of the building. Courtyards along Vassar Street between the clusters welcome visitors and provide outdoor gathering spaces. Each cluster is served by a distinctive, projecting staircase. Three penthouses enclose the building's mechanical and electrical systems.

The USGBC awarded the building LEED BD+C platinum certification. Its concrete mixes include high volumes of supplementary cementitious materials in place of Portland cement. The highly-efficient building envelope underwent a rigorous commissioning process, and structural penetrations through the envelope are thermally-broken. The landscaping materials and roof drains divert rainwater into retention chambers beneath the plazas and courtyards. A green roof and white roofing membranes reduce the heat-island effect. The building is designed to accommodate photovoltaic arrays. By locating critical equipment on the roof rather than a basement, the project team bolstered the building's resilience.