Hobson College is a ground-up mixed-use residential college at Princeton University with 273,000 sq. ft. of space for students to live, learn, dine, collaborate, and socialize. Built to replace the 1960s-era First College (formerly Wilson College), the building is named after donor Mellody Hobson and is the first of Princeton’s colleges to be named for a person of color. Driven by the project’s mandate to both reflect and welcome Princeton’s increasingly diverse student body, the university engaged a team of designers, with JSA/MIXdesign leading the interiors of the college and providing inclusive design services.

The concept of Multisensory Wayfinding informs the design throughout the building’s ground-floor public spaces—consisting of a commons, classrooms, a new dining hall, library, and performance space—as well as the 220 student rooms organized around “community clusters” (kitchens, lounges, and study spaces) on the upper four floors. As a set of design principles, Multisensory Wayfinding augments conventional signage and uses color, materials, lighting, and acoustics to help everyone, including people with disabilities, safely and confidently navigate public space.

Location	Princeton, NJ
Expected Completion	2027
Size	273,000 GSF
Collaborators	Hanbury (Architect of Record), PAU (Design Architect),
Key Participants	Joel Sanders, Matthew Liu, Marco H. Li, Hansel Bauman
Graphics	PAU, JSAMIXdesign