Kean University, home of the nascent Michael Graves College for architecture and design, has received permission from its board of trustees to purchase three of Graves’s properties in Princeton, N.J. — including his residence and studio, the Warehouse — for $20.

Graves, a prolific architect, a standard-bearer of postmodernism in the 1980s and a popularizer of designer versions of teakettles and other everyday objects, died last year. Through his will, he donated the properties to Princeton University, his neighbor and longtime employer.

But Princeton rejected the gift.

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The Warehouse is a microcosm of Graves’s design ethos: a postmodern (with a nod toward classicism), holistic treatment of interior and exterior spaces. “It is a perfect expression of Michael’s humanistic design philosophy, with its thoughtful integration of architecture, interiors, furniture, artifacts, artwork and landscape,” Linda Kinsey, a principal at Michael Graves Architecture & Design, said in a statement.

Under Kean’s ownership, little is expected to change about the Warehouse. Graves used the space as a residence and art studio, but he also treated the house as a museum and gathering place for seminars and salons. “We would use the house the way Michael did,” David Mohney, dean of the Michael Graves College, said, “and the scale of use would be consistent.”