Caltech Redefines Dormitory Life with Avery House

PASADENA— It's a campus dormitory that would have welcomed Richard Feynman and his bongo drums as permanent residents. And Thomas Edison might have been a sponsored guest for coffee and ideas on how to market inventions.

Avery House, on the northeast edge of the California Institute of Technology campus, is the university's newest building and one of its most ambitious and innovative projects in recent years. Established with funds donated by inventor and entrepreneur R. Stanton Avery, the $16.1 million rambling Spanish Colonial structure will later this month be occupied by its first crop of undergraduate students, graduates, and faculty members.

"Avery House will bring the Oxford-style college house to a new level," said Tom Mannion, director of Auxiliary and Business Services at Caltech. Mannion, who has been involved in the planning and realization of Avery House from the start, said that perhaps the most innovative feature of the house will be its sponsorship of special visitors who will spend time with the residents.

In accordance with the wishes and inclinations of Mr. Avery, many of the special visitors will be entrepreneurs who have distinguished themselves in a variety of high-tech ventures and whom a young engineer or scientist-to-be would view as inspirations. In the various community spaces of the building, Avery House residents and other campus students and personnel will be able to meet informally with entrepreneurs and Caltech guests. Permanent displays in the library gallery will highlight Avery's career, and rotating exhibits will showcase the achievements of the visitors with whom the permanent Avery House residents will come in contact.

In short, Avery House will be not only a dormitory in which students, researchers, professors, visiting scholars, and industry leaders will live together and think together, but also a facility that will "embody the spirit of entrepreneurship." The entrepreneurial angle is especially important to Avery, who in 1935 began designing equipment and adhesive products that led to the Avery Dennison Corp.

Today, the corporation is a multi-billion-dollar international concern that dominates its market. Avery was on the Caltech Board of Trustees from 1971 to 1985, where he also served as chair, and has continued to maintain close contacts with the institution as a Life Trustee.

The official opening for Avery House is set for 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, September 10. The facility is located at the corner of Del Mar Boulevard and Holliston Avenue on the Caltech campus.

Contact: Robert Tindol (818) 395-3631 tindol@caltech.edu