Situated on a triangular site north of Yale University's Cross Campus quadrangle near Science Hill, Benjamin Franklin College and Pauli Murray College carry forward the Gothic style established by James Gamble Rogers in the 1920s and 1930s with his Harkness Memorial Quadrangle and six of the ten original residential colleges. Organized around nine quadrangles and sixteen arched passageways, the new colleges accommodate 904 student beds in varying types of suites. Each college has its own 300-seat dining hall and servery, a common room, a library, a faculty lounge, and provides access to shared lower level recreation spaces. Prospect Walk, a landscaped pedestrian way that bisects the site, provides east–west circulation and invites students and neighbors to pass between the colleges.

Three new towers serve as vertical campus markers, giving the new colleges a presence on Yale's skyline and visually linking them to Harkness Tower at the center of campus.

"It's stunning both in terms of it's massive scale and it's careful attention to the tiniest architectural detail." ~Jury comment