Gensler

Gone are the dorm days of bed frames raised on cinder blocks and duct-taped easy chairs—well, at least for 580 students lucky enough to be boarded at Loft-Right, a DePaul University off-campus residence hall. Chairs by no lesser talents than Eero Saarinen, Verner Panton, and Piero Lissoni

furnish the lobby lounge; custom platform beds and full kitchens with granite counters are a whole lot more substantial than anything offered at Urban Outfitters. Neighbors can chat on "front porches," painted alcoves outside suite entrances, so as not to interrupt studious roommates. It's enough to make anyone want to go back to school.

Merit

Viterbi Museum, Los Angeles

DESIGN AC Martin Partners.

STANDOUT The architecture incorporates Sandro Chia's murals of University of Southern California patrons Andrew and Erna Viterbi.

Warehouse, Syracuse, New York

DESIGN Gluckman Mayner Architects.

STANDOUT A new curtain wall helps turn a 1920's warehouse into a temporary home for the architecture school at Syracuse University.

National Ballet School, Toronto

DESIGN Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects.

STANDOUT Clear and translucent vertical surfaces create a light-filled, uplifting atmosphere.