Get to know COA’s campus from afar.
Arts & Sciences Building

The Arts & Sciences building is home to art studios, science labs, and a range of learning spaces and offices.
Classrooms in the Arts & Sciences building include:
- Amos Eno Greenhouse
- Chemistry Lab
- Christensen Zoology Laboratory
- Drafting Studio
- Geographic Information Systems Lab
- Green Media Lab
- Greene Laboratory of Botany
- Painting/Portrait Studio
- Taxidermy Lab
- Writing Center
Beatrix Farrand Gardens

The formal sequence of rock walled “rooms” on the ocean side of Kaelber Hall was created by the celebrated garden designer, Beatrix Farrand, in 1928. These rooms are a remnant of one of the historic estates that now comprise the campus, offering spaces for quiet study and intimate conversation. The unique stone walls, staircases, and hedges defining these spaces provide a sense of the designer’s skill. Several of the original rose bushes survive and a perennial border gives a sampling of plants typically used by Farrand in her garden designs.
Blair/Tyson Residence

Blair/Tyson (B/T) is a series of seven connected townhouses, each of which is home to eight residents. Rooms are a mix of singles and doubles, with the occasional triple. Each house has a shared kitchen/common room and exists as a smaller unit within the larger Blair/Tyson community. Shared coin-operated laundry facilities are available in the lower level of section C. With vibrant color schemes and an open courtyard in the middle, B/T is one of our liveliest residences.
Center for Human Ecology

College of the Atlantic’s Center for Human Ecology officially opens in 2021 as our newest, greenest academic space on campus. The Center for Human Ecology includes classrooms, labs, studios, faculty offices, and meeting spaces.
College Pier

COA’s pier is our gateway to Frenchman Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Here you’ll board our boats, including research vessel M/V Osprey, and you’ll also watch the sunrise, skip rocks across the bay, make music, bask in the sun, jump in the frigid waters, and learn to sail. The cobble beach is a great launching site for kayaks, and the rocky shorefront along campus is the perfect place for smelling the sea air and watching the tides come and go.
Community Gardens

On the north side of campus, the community garden is a large expanse of garden beds and pathways, a place where students, staff, faculty, and community members can tend their own organic garden plots. The community gardens include a small mixed orchard with peach, pear, apple, and other fruit trees. Gardening and agriculture classes often use space in these gardens to practice techniques, conduct experiments, and develop garden designs. Community gardeners share responsibilities for maintaining common parts of the garden, as well as shared tools and compost systems.
Cottage House

Cottage is an old gatehouse that was converted to student housing. It has a cozy living room and kitchen, and its small size gives housemates good opportunities to build deep relationships with one another. Cottage was fully renovated in 2019 with new appliances, bathrooms, flooring, and energy efficiency features.
Davis Carriage House

Davis Carriage has a rustic, cabin-like feel with wood paneling and a large common room and kitchen.
Deering Common Community Center

With comfy chairs, a fireplace, and ocean views, the Deering Common Community Center is a living room for the COA community. On the first floor you’ll find the student lounge, cafe, and offices for the college nurse and mental health counselors. The offices of student life staff, the meditation room, a student organization meeting space, and an additional classroom are on the upper floors. While Deering Common has its roots as a storied oceanfront estate, it’s at the forefront of sustainable design. It’s heated with a wood pellet boiler and has composting toilets and recycled newsprint insulation.
George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History
The George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History investigates, interprets, and displays the natural world of Maine. All exhibits are designed and produced by College of the Atlantic. It is housed in the original headquarters of Acadia National Park, renovated and expanded to provide a unique site for exhibits, programs, and activities.
Kaelber Hall

Kaelber Hall is at the heart of COA’s campus. The red bricks of Newlin Gardens, the distinctive archway underneath Thorndike Library’s reading room, and the cozy booths in TAB (the Blair Dining Hall) are much-loved gathering places for students, faculty, and staff alike. Kaelber Hall is also home to the Admission Office, Financial Aid, student mailboxes, classroom space, and the computer lab.
Kathryn W. Davis Center for International & Regional Studies

The Davis Center for International and Regional Studies has a grassy lawn that ends at the shore of Frenchman Bay. Inside you’ll find a small classroom, a community kitchen used for classes and events, a lounge and study area, as well as faculty and staff offices. Offices include:
- Center for Applied Human Ecology (CAHE)
- International Center
- Island Research Center
Kathryn W. Davis Residence Village

The Kathryn W. Davis Village is COA’s “greenest” housing complex. The houses in the village are heated by a biomass pellet boiler system and are incredibly energy efficient. All six houses have a living room, kitchen, and dining area on the ground floor, replete with vibrant color schemes and comfy furniture. Upstairs, two floors house eight residents in large student rooms with communal bathrooms boasting composting toilets.
More information on the story and sustainable efforts behind Kathryn W. Davis Village is available here.
Peach House

Peach is a small and cozy house, home to approximately eight students. It has a spacious kitchen with excellent storage and also boasts a storied history as the birthplace of COA: the first college employees (including Ann Peach, after whom the house was named) worked here together for a year before another building was made ready. Peach House was most recently renovated in 2019 with new appliances, bathrooms, flooring, and energy efficiency features.
Pottery Studio
Our ever-popular ceramics courses take place in the pottery studio, a small structure with a rooftop solar array on the north end of campus.
Seafox Residence

Seafox is a charming old home with lots of quirky nooks and a fantastic seaside porch. The size of the house (26-28 students) and the central common spaces offer great opportunities for an engaged community in a peaceful and homey atmosphere. Seafox has its own coin-operated laundry facilities.
The Turrets

The Turrets is one of the grandest of the surviving Gilded Age “cottages” along the Bar Harbor shore. Built in 1895 for J.J. Emery, a financier based in Cincinnati and New York, and designed by New York architect Bruce Price, one of the most distinguished designers of that time, it represents one of the finest examples of the French Chateauesque style for which Price was known. The building has been part of College of the Atlantic since 1973 and currently serves as both academic and administrative space.
In addition to classrooms and faculty offices, the Turrets is also home to:
- Academic Services
- Allied Whale
- Business Office
- Development Office
- Internships & Career Services
- Lou Rabineau Education Studies Center
- Leslie C. Brewer Great Hall
- Office of the President
- Registrar’s Office
- Summer Programs
In 2014, restoration of the Turret’s masonry, roof, and windows received a Maine Preservation Honor Award.
Thomas S. Gates Jr. Community Center

The Thomas S. Gates Jr. Community Center (“Gates”) is a central gathering place at COA. The meeting hall is home to our weekly All College Meeting, and also a central place for theatrical and musical productions, lectures, as well as classes in music, performance, and movement. The Gates Center building is also home to the Ethel H. Blum Gallery, the McCormick Lecture Hall, and a series of music practice rooms.
Turrets Seaside Garden

“A large granite bench overlooks the Turrets Seaside Garden at College of the Atlantic. In the distance a string of islands stretch across Frenchman Bay to Schoodic Peninsula. Above the garden stands the historic The Turrets. The campus extends uphill, but the garden, concealed behind The Turrets, has a sunken, secluded atmosphere.” So writes Eamonn Hutton ’05, who took on the restoration of the 4000-square-foot garden as his senior project . Hutton recreated the formal bedded out pattern of the garden but chose plant material that would require less maintenance and be unappealing to the deer that frequent the campus. Using the subtle, contemplative pinks, purples and blue-grey tones of lavender, astilbe, fairy roses, nepeta and Siberian iris, Hutton followed a color scheme typical of the blue-grey gardens described by noted garden designer Gertrude Jekyll.
In 2009 a central fountain, created by COA alumnus Dan Farrenkopf ’95 of Lunaform Pottery, was installed in the space where a long-lost fountain once stood.
Witchcliff

Witchcliff is a small seaside cottage that houses faculty offices, classroom space, and the Drury Reading Room, focused on natural history texts. The Witchcliff property is the southern terminus of COA’s campus.
- Arts & Sciences Building
- Beatrix Farrand Gardens
- Blair/Tyson Residence
- Center for Human Ecology
- College Pier
- Community Gardens
- Cottage House
- Davis Carriage House
- Deering Common Community Center
- George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History
- Kaelber Hall
- Kathryn W. Davis Center for International & Regional Studies
- Kathryn W. Davis Residence Village
- Peach House
- Pottery Studio
- Seafox Residence
- The Turrets
- Thomas S. Gates Jr. Community Center
- Turrets Seaside Garden
- Witchcliff