Completed in 1964, the Orchard Hill Residential Area transformed a former campus apple orchard into one of UMass Amherst's signature living communities. The project delivered four residence halls, Dickinson, Webster, Field, and Grayson, arranged around a central green space known to generations of students as "the Bowl." Set on elevated terrain at the eastern edge of campus, Orchard Hill was designed to give incoming students a self-contained residential neighborhood with its own character and identity. Six decades later, the halls continue to house first-year and multi-year students and remain one of the university's most distinctive residential settings.
