We have a rock-solid foundation in student housing design
Founding principal Brian DiPietro began his professional career at WTW Architects in 2004, where he led the design for over two-thirds of the firm’s student housing projects, becoming a partner in 2019. Projects he led the design and/or project management for during his time at WTW are featured.
Building on Brian’s experience, ROCKiT Architects brings over 15 years of experience dedicated to student housing across the country. At WTW, Brian made relationships with some of the biggest developers both regionally and nationally, resulting in over $1B of student housing and apartments across the country in over 6M SF of buildings of experience. While at WTW, Brian designed everything from wood framed buildings to steel, and block and plank, modular construction, LEED, and even the first net-zero carbon residence hall in the SUNY system of 64 campuses.
ROCKiT senior project manager Paul Lipchak adds another level of experience to student housing, having been employed by Allen & O’Hara for several years, primarily focused on the development of on and off-campus student housing projects across the country.
We know how to build residential communities as well as anyone
WTW Architects was once known as the premier architect in the country for designing Student Unions, having designed over 110 Student Unions/Centers across the United States. Student Unions are the central gathering space on campus, so it could be said that WTW was the national expert at designing communities on college campuses.
Early on in his career at WTW, ROCKiT founder Brian DiPietro took that expertise in creating communities in the Student Union design and applied it to his student housing projects. The result is an unparalleled approach to on-campus housing design, one that results in buildings with an uncanny ability to create community in the residence halls.
We have the specific experience for almost any type of residence hall
In the world of student housing, Brian DiPietro has just about done it all in his time at WTW.
Feasibility studies and initial floor plan design for the 12-story steel framed Des Places Hall for Duquesne University. Designed two residence halls, one a living learning community with classrooms and faculty apartments at the University of Nevada Reno in a partnership with Collaborative Design Studio of Reno, NV. Designed two living-learning residence halls for Southeastern Louisianna University with a geothermal system. Oversaw master planning and schematic floor plan designs for what would become three phases of hi-rise dormitories at Westchester University in a partnership with Voith & McTavish Architects of Philadelphia, PA. Consulted as the office expert on floor planning and acoustics for two residence halls at Clarion University, one of which included a movie theater below the housing units.
That’s not including those experiences outlined in the feature projects below, which include:
- The largest on-campus housing replacement project in the United States
- The first zero-net carbon residence hall in the SUNY (State University of New York) system of 64 campuses
- Two modular construction projects (three buildings in total) on separate campuses
- A residence hall that was one point short of becoming the first LEED Platinum certified residence hall in the United States
- Living-learning communities which included Offices for Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice, the campus’ center for Residence Life, and even offices for the Department of Homeland Security where officials taught gun safety lessons in the residence hall community lounges
- Residence halls on two separate campuses which housed the campus Health and Wellness Centers
- Numerous residence halls with commercial dining or retail components
- Design-Build, LEED Gold residence hall with geothermal
- Optimized a building to be built by brick laying robots
- Numerous LEED certified, silver, and gold residence halls
Featured Student Housing Projects
