Princeton Created A Dynamic Third Space

Princeton University has never lacked for beautiful buildings. Its campus is among the most architecturally coherent in American higher education. Yet like many elite universities, Princeton has struggled with something more basic: central, informal gathering spaces where students actually spend time together without a purpose, program, or prompt.

That is why the unexpected success of the Frist Health Center, as reported by the Architectural Record, is worth attention. Students now sit and meet there, pass through it, and linger regularly—even when they are not sick. That behavior was not the building’s stated goal.

But it may be its most important institutional outcome. What makes this especially revealing is what occupied the site before. For decades, the location was dominated by Eno Ha