The new building lies behind a seventeenth century stone wall, which forms the northern boundary to the garden. The new quadrangle extends the College into previously unknown territory, in response to which the building has been designed to sustain a sense of the secretive and unexpected.

Public rooms (auditorium and dining room) form a lower ground level, a top-lit underworld. Above these, a landscaped terrace forms an upper world for 41 undergraduate rooms arranged in towers. Smaller buildings, fellows' sets and a belvedere, stand in the foreground and contribute to the complexity of the silhouette.

The construction of the building articulates the contrast between the upper and lower worlds. Below terrace level, the structure consists of precast white concrete, the largest elements weighing about eight tons. Piers are heavily point tooled. Pendentives re cantilevered off clusters of highly polished columns to support shallow domes. Hollow keystones illuminate deeply coloured perimeter walls.

Above terrace level the load-bearing brick and blockwork construction develops vertically into slender precast frames supporting glass and metal screens to create a series of lantern-like prospect towers.

The public rooms can be suited together for major functions, such as concerts and lectures. Access to student rooms is entirely separate and these rooms are arranged conventionally around spiral staircases.

The existing listed building fronting Parks Road has been refurbished and partly rebuilt for student accommodation and teaching rooms. Between this building and the Garden Quadrangle is a group of music rooms in a two storey pavilion.

Client St John's College
Contract JCT.80
Cost £7.5m
Completion 1993

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