Down under

Peter Aaron/ESTO

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The November rededication of Ezra Stiles College marked the end of Yale's 13-year, $500 million campaign to renovate all 12 of its residential colleges. As part of this last renovation, new underground activity rooms for Stiles and its sister college, Morse, were built beneath the semicircular lawn outside the colleges (seen here). Dubbed the Crescent Underground, the space includes a theater, fitness rooms, and other amenities to match those that were tucked into the basements of the older colleges. Architects KieranTimberlake used a series of skylights and a sunken courtyard to bring light to the Underground. A bridge over the courtyard has made the route to Payne Whitney Gymnasium—known informally as Jock Walk—a little more picturesque.