The Steppes is a housing complex for both RPI students and Troy residents located on the RPI campus on EMPAC Hill. Due to the harsh steep inclines throughout the site, the best way to utilize the space and make it inhabitable was to terrace the entire site. In doing so, the ground has become a natural staircase which not only enables circulation throughout the site, but also promotes travel between the RPI campus and Downtown Troy much like The Approach currently does. The Steppes terrace from the top of EMPAC Hill to Downtown Troy and actually becomes one with the landscape as individuals can walk directly from the land onto the roofs of the apartments and move about the rooftops. This idea of pedestrian circulation taking place atop and along private living areas questions and opposes societal norms with regard to private and public space by intermingling the two.

 

The form and patterned facades of the apartments have been created and further developed with a cascading, translucent approach. The interior takes the form of a step where spaces are sunken and raised according to the circulation and comfort of inhabitants while the exterior is trimmed away by the grid to create a flowing openness that both unites the design of the whole site and provides a new monument on the border of RPI and Troy that draws equal attention to both communities.