Founded in 1948 and established as Roger Williams Junior College in 1956, the institution acquired this imposing 63-acre site in 1965, just to the north of Mount Hope Bridge. Exploiting its waterfront site, architects Kent, Cruise and Associates designed a campus of geometric severity, working with simple cubic volumes of stuccoed rubble. In a freer style is the School of Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation (1985) by Kite, Palmer Associates (Providence).