Bates

Situated at the south edge of the Bates campus, Kalperis and Chu Halls form a central green space and campus gateway.

In the Bates College Store, the spirit of the college comes through with big, bold images of the Bates brand – its logotype, bobcat mascot, and signature garnet color – prevalent in all the retail signage and across the college merchandise.

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. Print is a campus service widely used as well and despite being located in the lower level, still needed to be visible to the campus community. The services offered are vast, and a huge ampersand welcomes visitors, implying that the service not only does printing, but also scanning, binding, design… and the list goes on.

To connect the interior design with the historical context, Bates and the design team collaborated with Museum L-A, a local institution with curated art and artifacts on the history of work, industry, and culture of the Lewiston-Auburn region. Beautiful silkscreen patterns were scaled up into a variety of installations within the student spaces, to appreciate the quality and details of the craftsmanship.

Now hosting up to 1,500 visitors per day, the resident support functions — store, mail, and print center — were transformed into a hub for campus life, adding to the social experience of student life at Bates.