Bruce Hall could be bulldozed and replaced with two new university accommodation halls housing up to 800 students, the Australian National University has confirmed.
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Only the Packard Wing would remain of the original university residence under the plan being put to students and alumni at a series of forums about the future of the college.
Even the historic Dining Hall could be demolished to open University Avenue up to Clunies Ross Street, in line with the Griffins' original vision for Canberra, Chris Grange, executive director of administration and planning at ANU said.
But Mr Grange described the design as "notional" and said the plan was still in consultation with the university community.
"The idea is two halls of residence, a new Bruce Hall and a new South Hall, both with about 400 student residences in them and they would be on either side and frame the University Avenue so they'd replace all of the existing buildings," Mr Grange said on ABC radio this week.
"That's one of the issues that's most controversial with our alumni community - whether that's the right way of going or not."
Alumni of the university's oldest undergraduate residential college have rallied to save the 55-year-old complex since April, despite repeated denials by the university that a decision had been made about its future.
The issue reared its head again after former Bruce Hall resident and billionaire Graham Tuckwell and his wife Louise donated $100 million for two new halls of residence to fund a major expansion of the prized Tuckwell Scholarship Program.
In donating the money, Mr Tuckwell said he would like to see a balcony in each new room, like the one he coveted during his time at Bruce Hall.
However the new halls would triple the density of the site and erode the culture of the beloved college, former president of Bruce Hall Andrew Hargrave told Fairfax Media.
"By tripling the density of the site there will be an immediate negative impact – it will be a less personal environment, far from the current 'home away from home' culture where everyone knows everyone. The quality of the pastoral care provided by Bruce Hall will also be put at risk," Mr Hargrave said.
"The ANU wants to replace Bruce Hall with a seven-storey complex that looks like a generic hotel or office building. It will be the tallest structure on campus, dwarfing surrounding buildings and looking completely out of place. It looks like a hotel in NewActon."
He said Bruce Hall had a proud history and that the university was yet to acknowledge its heritage value.
"Shamefully, there has been no recognition of Bruce Hall's heritage value, despite the ANU's own statement in 2012 that it should be nominated for the Commonwealth Heritage List. The ANU has never addressed this important issue," Mr Hargrave said.
"A great university like the ANU should be preserving and leveraging the heritage value of Bruce Hall to its advantage – not destroying it."
But Mr Grange said the "fabric" of the building had changed greatly throughout the years due to a number of extensions.
He said the unique culture of Bruce Hall would influence the design of the new buildings.
"One of the most important things in considering any development of Bruce Hall is that social continuity, keeping the feel of the culture, the student culture going forward," he said
"What we have been working on is trying to design a new Bruce Hall, trying to work out where it should be, how it should be configured and part of that is understanding what makes Bruce Hall an ongoing community, what makes Bruce Hall so unique within the ANU experience."
A decision on the hall's future is expected to be made in September or October.
