During the fall of 1947, the first building for the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory (NARL) was constructed, which consisted of a quonset hut retrofitted as a laboratory. Scientists arrived in Barrow (Utqiagvik), Alaska, the northernmost village in the United States, not long after. The remainder of NARL was built two miles outside the village center. A hive of research activity, NARL was its own Westernized world, situated close to Utqiagvik but separate from the Iñupiaq traditions of the local Indigenous community. When the federal government departed from the laboratory, Ukpeagvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC) took over ownership of the buildings. UIC leases a portion of the facility to I?isagvik College, Alaska's only tribal college. NARL now houses dormitories, common spaces, classrooms, conference rooms, offices, and a cafeteria. The quonset huts serve as faculty offices, classrooms, tutoring spaces, computer and media labs, and storage for heavy equipment. In all, I?isagvik College is spread across 85,000 gross square feet at both NARL and the Browerville Center satellite teaching facility in town. The college is comprised of 13 total buildings but none are connected, which poses a risk in the extreme winter conditions of the Arctic. Several times a year, for example, a polar bear wanders onto campus, and a flurry of email and text alerts race through the college community warning people not to walk between buildings. Very few college campuses have to worry about such a unique interruption during their day-to-day operations. This article describes how I?isagvik College has prospered under its mission, working within the confines of its unorthodox infrastructure, visioning and creating a new development plan and facility that will be student-centered, environmentally sustainable, technologically innovative, and timeless in design.