School Of Thought

In Camden, New Jersey, a new Perkins Eastman– designed nursing school refuses to turn its back on the city’s reviving center.

- Heather Corcoran

When the Rutgers University–Camden Nursing and Science Building opened in downtown Camden, New Jersey, the city’s mayor remarked on the facility’s connection to city hall—and not just because of proximity. The newest outpost of the state university’s Camden location is the first academic building beyond the walls of its campus proper, about a ten-minute walk away, just opposite the Depression era municipal building. City hall can be glimpsed from the new Perkins Eastman– designed structure’s atrium and is reflected in its glazing. Look closely and you might spot a line by Walt Whitman, which has become the city’s motto, emblazoned on the older structure: “In a dream, I saw a city invincible.”