Our Campus
City Within the Country
Tucked away on a 500-acre former estate in Westchester County, our unique campus was designed by master architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. Clustered together in the center to form a campus center, the new buildings were constructed of the same brown brick.
Why? There’s both a historical reason and a metaphorical one.
The Story Behind the Brick
We like to think the consistency and order of the buildings’ facades is offset by the explosively colorful, diverse, and unconventional intellectual and artistic activity that happens inside them.
Behind our uniform brick walls are classrooms, laboratories, performance spaces, and studios—the spaces where the real heart of campus beats loudly and relentlessly.
The Purchase Experience
Life here is hands-on and community-focused where eveyone pitches in to make Purchase a sustainable and diverse home for creative minds. We’re DIY meets intellectualism, boundless intensity infused with an inquisitive spirit.
We’d love for you to come see us—schedule a tour and get the rundown from our Admissions Ambassadors.
Colorful in so many ways.
Our athletics teams are blue and orange, adopted from the New York Knicks, who once used our Physical Education building as their practice facility.
Heliotrope and puce, however, are often cited as the colors of Purchase, which dates back to the early seventies, when, according to legend, an off-hand remark about the suggested colors for the first graduation gained traction among the students. Controversial at the time, the color combination was put up for a student vote, twice, and became the unofficial colors of choice, still embraced by many.