OZ | Student Housing by OZ Architecture

OZ STUDENT HOUSING

OZ’s Student Housing team crafts buildings that prioritize the user experience. These projects respond to the demographic needs of current and future users, and adapt to micro-climates of the regions where we plan and build projects.

• OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

• THE RAMBLER

• UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

• THE RAMBLER

• UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO

• BEAR CREEK APARTMENTS

• BASE 36

• ACASIA

• ON THE BOARDS

• COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY

• PURA VIDA

• CARRIAGE HOUSE

• UNCOMMON

• WILLOW

• MAX FLATS

• BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY

• LINCOLN AVE. STUDENT HOUSING

• ROCKY VISTA UNIVERSITY

• CRIMSON CLIFFS STUDENT RESIDENCES

• UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO

• THE ELLIOT

• THE WALKER

• THE BOONE

• TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

• ON THE BOARDS

• UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA

• ON THE BOARDS

• PURDUE UNIVERSITY

• ON THE BOARDS

Our knowledgeable and experienced team offers student housing and mixed-use know-how while facilitating a streamlined and effective design process.

At OZ, we bring deep expertise in student housing and mixed-use projects, ensuring a streamlined, effective design process from start to finish.

Unit plans are the DNA of every residential building. By clearly understanding current market needs, we create designs that minimize long corridors, bring in natural light, and connect indoor and outdoor spaces. Designing from the inside out creates buildings that feel like home and foster a sense of belonging.

Interior design is crucial, aligning with our layouts to encourage interaction and safety while remaining authentic. Inspired by our hospitality experience, our designs activate spaces to connect residents daily. Elegant amenities aren’t just about aesthetics—they must build community, offering privacy when needed and engagement where desired.

Our process starts with clearly understanding the project’s goals, guided by collaboration between architects and interior designers. We design with efficiency in mind, envisioning units as homes that extend into vibrant “neighborhoods” like corridors, lobbies, and plazas.

Beyond the programmatic distribution and massing, the building’s skin defines the character and quality of the experience. We define a material palette that adds dimension, scale, and texture. We connect inhabitants to their surroundings through thoughtful material selection, energy-saving strategies, and intentional façade design while ensuring long-term sustainability and cost savings.

The Rambler | Ohio State University COLUMBUS,

OHIO

Designing this type of housing is particularly rewarding as it allows us to bring together expertise from across our practice areas to inform a design that supports how different students live, socialize with their neighbors and friends, and prefer to learn.

The new community, dubbed “Rambler,” will offer various housing options – from one- to six-bedroom floorplans across a total of 379 units. Each element of the Rambler is designed to provide students with the flexibility to customize their experience to their individual needs at any hour of the day and any time of the year – all with their safety and well-being in mind.

The first two levels feature retail and amenities, creating a welcoming, activated experience and helping to integrate the community into the campus. A series of courtyards throughout the property provide ample social opportunities along with options for more passive activities. Students can grab a coffee at the ground-floor café before heading into campus, relax by the rooftop pool, watch a game on the outdoor jumbotron, get a workout in after class in the gym, or recenter themselves in the dedicated yoga and meditation rooms.

Carefully integrating the most desirable amenities into the design of student housing in a way that offers choice and flexibility while maximizing the number of units so that the rents remain attainable requires an extraordinary level of creativity, but that’s also what makes this type of work so interesting.

SIZE

591,560 sf 350 units | 886 beds

COMPLETED

Est. 2025

OWNER

LV Collective

CONTRACTOR

Elford Inc.

The Rambler | University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

Building upon the Rambler brand, Ann Arbor boasts a range of housing options spanning from one to six-bedroom layouts across nearly 300 units.

These projects are meticulously crafted to empower students with the freedom to choose their living style, their personal space needs, and their level of engagement in public spaces.

Amenities are spread throughout the building for a range of uses and a small community feel. Students can grab a coffee at the first-floor coffee lounge, meet with study groups in the level 2 co-working space, catch the game in the 13th-floor lounge and pool deck, or have large group gatherings in the 17th-floor amphitheater space.

Strategically weaving sought-after amenities into student housing design while maximizing unit capacity to maintain affordable rents demands flexibility in design. It is precisely this challenge that infuses our work with such intrigue and excitement.

SIZE

490,000 sf

273 units | 1,010 beds

COMPLETED

Est. 2027

OWNER

LV Collective

CONTRACTOR

Turner

Crimson Cliffs Student Residences | Rocky Vista University

IVINS, UTAH

Rocky Vista University’s housing corridor, thoughtfully sited just off the main quadrangle, creates a 24/7 work-live community.

The building’s slight rotation from the North/South grid carves out pockets of green space between buildings and provides breathtaking views of Big Red Mountain beyond the site. Social quads and lawns fill the intermediate spaces between the school and residences to better ensure connectivity between in-residence and commuting students. The plan for a future retail center at the southeast corner will bring the main street to the site, improving access to amenities for students and Ivins community members.

SIZE

89,500 sf

3 buildings

43 apartments per building

28 studios | 15 two-bedroom COMPLETED 2017

OWNER

Gunlock Ridge Holding LLC

CONTRACTOR

Shaw Construction

Bear Creek | University of Colorado

BOULDER, COLORADO

A precedent-setting project for the University of Colorado, Bear Creek Apartments provides housing for 1,000 students at Williams Village, a satellite housing cluster close to the main campus.

Site planning and building design focus on creating a sense of community for students, adapting the best of the main campus residential areas. Designed to complement the predominant Tuscan vernacular style of the main campus, Bear Creek connects its residents to the larger campus and serves as an impressive gateway to the city of Boulder.

New residential architecture for Williams Village carries the spirit of the main campus. Here, contemporary students will find an expression of the University of Colorado style within buildings designed for their modern needs. Flexible, apartment-style units are arranged along short corridors, promoting a sense of ownership, and the building width is kept narrow so that each unit has ample window openings for sunlight and air. Common lounge, study, and service areas are located near entries and at interior corners, facilitating social interaction between the residents.

200,000 sf 1,000 Beds

OWNER

University of Colorado / American Campus Communities

CONTRACTOR

Swinerton Construction

Lincoln Ave. Student Housing | Boise State University

BOISE, IDAHO

Encompassing three city blocks, this complex supports Boise State University’s on-campus student population.

This 90-unit, 4-level student housing complex provides a campus home for 360 Boise State University students. Each 2-story townhouse-style suite consists of 4 bedrooms, a full kitchen, a living room, and a laundry area. Additional amenities at the complex include a basketball court, a sand volleyball court, and a barbecue area.

SIZE

180,000 sf

Ten buildings | Eight townhome buildings | Three city blocks 1,000 beds

COMPLETED

2010

OWNER

American Campus Communities

CONTRACTOR

Petra General Contractors

Acasia | University of Colorado

BOULDER, COLORADO

The design of Plaza on Broadway provides a unique off-campus housing experience for CU students that emphasizes amenities for each tenant and community spaces for engagement with their surroundings.

Located directly across from campus, each unit has an exterior balcony to enhance its visual connection to the university and the surrounding foothills. Set within the beautiful environs of Boulder, engaging the building with the exterior was a critical focus of the design. This was achieved through internal south-facing courtyards, with lush vegetation and overhead festoon lighting for evening gatherings. The “Paseo” between buildings offers more lush plantings, vegetative screen walls, and festoon lights while providing an aesthetic link between buildings.

Throughout the design process, the team strived to create a contemporary and comfortable environment. The results are buildings with clean, contemporary lines, precise detailing, and an easily understood layout. Each student’s needs for a comfortable living environment are met with a private bathroom off every bedroom and an open central living space with an exterior balcony. The recreational lounge and fitness room adjacent to the main lobby promote student connectivity. It flows seamlessly into the lobby, which energizes the space as a social hub for the tenants.

102,000 sf

39 units | 139 Beds

OWNER

Del Mar Interest

CONTRACTOR

Brinkman Construction

Uncommon | Colorado State University

FORT COLLINS, COLORADO

Uncommon is located on the southeast corner of College Avenue and Olive Street in Fort Collins, near the Colorado State University campus. It is approximately 0.8 acres and it stretches across ten traditional downtown lots.

The 310 South College site, now named Uncommon, is a redevelopment of the existing site where Perkins restaurant previously resided. Uncommon is a mixed-use building with retail/commercial on the ground floor and multi-family residential and student housing for rent apartments on top floors. Providing apartments with a strong retail presence along College Avenue fulfills the need for housing in a way that supports both downtown and CSU.

Outdoor public open space on the ground floor, through the “Paseo”, provides connection to the Montezuma Fuller Alley. Residents’ private open space is provided on top of the second level. These exterior spaces provide a great gathering space for the residents, while maintaining close connection to the street level activity of College Avenue.

Dohn

223 Willow | Colorado State University

FORT COLLINS, COLORADO

The vision for the site’s redevelopment was to bring residential market-rate dwelling units to a site located on one of the oldest sections of the River District on the edge of Old Town.

With the current enhancements and growth of the downtown towards the river along Linden: restaurants, hotels, parking garages, retail shops, and offices, the residential units bring people to the urban core, activating the pedestrian focus of the storefront nature of downtown.

Following the revitalization of a very eclectic neighborhood with industrial and agricultural roots living in tandem with the trains that also shape the site, this new development encourages the visual articulation of buildings as defined by the community vision for an active and energetic downtown, of which the River District is an integral part.

155,000 sf

units | 236 beds

CONTRACTOR

Dohn Construction

Apartments at Maddie | University of Northern Colorado

GREELEY, COLORADO

The Apartments at Maddie provide upscale living options that have yet to be seen in the Greeley market, with a thoughtful design that reflects the local community.

Connecting the University of Northern Colorado campus to Greeley’s growing downtown, the Apartments at Maddie features industrialinspired architecture with 221 apartment units across three buildings, anchored by distinctive restaurants and shops.

Named after famous local cowboys to reflect Greeley’s long cultural history, the Apartments at Maddie include 3 distinct residential buildings: The Walker, The Eliot, and The Boone. Including a mix of studios and one and two-bedroom apartments, OZ designed each building to retain Greeley’s historic charm while integrating fresh, upscale interior accents throughout. Luxury amenities include a resort-style pool, state-of-the-art fitness rooms, an outdoor courtyard, dog park, and more.

185,000 sf

221 Units

OWNER

Richmark

Brinkman Construction

Art District Lofts | Metro Denver Campus

DENVER, COLORADO

The 115-unit Art District Lofts are seated at the confluence of two historic neighborhoods – Santa Fe Art District and Lincoln Park District. The project draws from the vibrancy of the Santa Fe Art District while reflecting the cultural context of Lincoln Park.

The glassy storefront brings sidewalk activity into the lobby as well as the commercial space that wraps the corner. The engaging experience continues to all common amenity areas up the eight stories. An elevated third-level exterior pool courtyard soaks abundant sun and views of the city and the front range. Sixth-level terraces connect the tenants with the neighborhood, and a roof-level amenity deck places the resident in the core of the neighborhood with 360-degree views of downtown Denver.

Apartments range in size from 415-950 square feet and offer studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom options. The openness of the living experience is magnified by large windows extending to the floor that provide substantial daylight and unobstructed views of the surrounding neighborhoods, the city, and the Front Range.

SIZE

113,000 sf

8-story | 130 residential units

COMPLETED

2023

OWNER

CRE Development

CONTRACTOR

Bristlecone Construction