With rapid growth in its technology programs and overall student enrollment, Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, CT, needed a new campus academic building to house engineering spaces, manufacturing labs, general classrooms and a culinary program. Project site requirements included a freestanding academic greenhouse and a bridge connection between new construction and the existing adjacent building. The site also serves as a primary campus access point for students and needed to celebrate this arrival. Through the relationship of site geometry, interior functions, materials and form, Amenta Emma developed a solution for the 100,000 sf building which creates distinct identities for academic programs, state-of-the-art instructional space and establishes a campus “front door” organized by a central exterior terrace and two-level interior common space.