The Radain
Nestled in Philadelphia's University City, the Radian has provided housing options for local students for over a decade. Keeping the building's slogan "Always Up, Always On" in mind, we freshened up their entry and amenity areas with a cool palette of shiny metallics and neon accents, paired with branded blues, soft textures, and graphic patterns. The resulting spaces feel as energetic and forward-thinking as the building's hardworking residents.
Photos courtesy of The Scion Group
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The Brief Was a Slogan
The Radian has housed students in Philadelphia's University City for more than a decade, and its slogan — Always Up, Always On — set the terms of the renovation. Kuchar reworked the entry and amenity floors around a cool palette of shiny metallics and neon, warmed by branded blues, soft textures, and graphic pattern. The lobby now opens on a reception desk in perforated metal and steel, backed by linear neon mounted on blue glass. Past it, the leasing offices, study lounge, and huddle rooms are each painted a successively lighter blue, so the corridor reads as an ombre drawn from the brand's own tone. Upstairs, an existing spiral staircase was fitted with study booths at the mezzanine, and chairs, lighting, carpet, and paint hold to a single blue that ties the two floors together.
Student housing is an amenity business. Residents sign for a bed and stay for everywhere else in the building, which is why this renovation touched no units at all — only the rooms where students choose to be. Student accommodation interior designers are really designing for choice: a mezzanine booth for one, a conference room for six, a niche for the student who wants to be near people while working alone, a club room for the ones who are done working. Kuchar works from Chicago across the country on this asset class, in Philadelphia and Coralville and Phoenix, because operators hold portfolios rather than single buildings and the brief travels between them.
A Chicago Multifamily Design Partner You Can Build With
Multifamily and student housing design is our craft, and the Kuchar team carries more than 90 years of combined industry experience. We design the shared floors that decide whether a building leases, and we design them to survive the people who use them.