The new residences at St. Francis Xavier University are unique in their design as they have been configured into two curved and mirrored wings that together form a semicircle. Each building is capped with a 50-foot copper dome tower.

The 360-bed student residences are targeting LEED^® Gold certification. The buildings are unique in the fact that they use fish oil heating combined with a geothermal system to distribute heating and cooling through in-floor distribution. Ceiling heights have also been maximized by distributing air through a rooftop spine network of ducts with vertical branch supply.

The new residence has been designed in-house by Bird’s design team using building information modeling (BIM) 3D software. The use of BIM as part of an integrated design approach has been helpful in managing the design process and avoiding costly architectural, mechanical and structural interferences during construction. In addition, the ability to accurately integrate mechanical distribution during the design phase enabled the team to maximize floor areas by reducing unnecessary service chases and wall thickness, which in turn, reduced the building’s height, footprint and construction costs.