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Sylvan Residential Area
Constructed: 1971
Architects: John Paul Warnecke and Associates, New York, N.Y.
Design and construction
The Sylvan Residential Area is a complex of three eight-story buildings located in the northeast corner of campus. The design firm, Warnecke and Associates, was one of several nationally known architectural practices selected to design campus structures during the years of rapid growth of the University. The brick buildings (Brown, Cashin, and McNamara dormitories) are handsomely detailed and beautifully sited in a park-like setting with existing trees atop the Eastman Lane hill. One thousand four hundred students are housed in suite-like accommodations, each suite designed to hold six, seven, or eight students in combinations of double and single rooms arranged around a living room. Sylvan represents one of the first uses of the suite concept in the nation.
Landscape
The living area is almost entirely surrounded by forest. When Sylvan was constructed it sat adjacent to sports field to the west which have since been replaced by construction of North Residential Area.
Naming of the building
The complex was named for Harry E. Sylvan, a trustee of the University from 1940 to 1968.
Source
- From Three Architectural Tours: Selected Buildings on the Campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst (Amherst, 2000)
- For additional information, consult the University Archives (RG 36/102).