Once Kean University’s School of Public Architecture settles into the former residence and studio of the late architect Michael Graves, plans are for the intimate salons Mr. Graves often held inside the iconic building known as The Warehouse to be revived. And these programs, with key leaders of the architectural profession, won’t be limited to Kean students.

“Some of these will be by invitation, some by request,” said David Mohney, the Dean of the University’s Michael Graves College. “We have to develop a full program and gauge interest. Some will be geared toward neighbors and residents of Princeton. The important thing is that our board was strongly supportive of reaching out to the Princeton community.”

Mr. Graves, who died March 12, 2015, left The Warehouse and two adjacent buildings to Princeton University in his will. But the school, where he taught for 39 years, opted to reject the offer. Kean University, which is in Union, had forged a strong relationship with Mr. Graves, opening a school of architecture and design in his name. The school was next on the list of possibilities, and an offer was made. Kean University will purchase the property on Patton Avenue for $20 and use it for educational purposes.

“It was a complete and great surprise,” Mr. Mohney said of the offer. “The program here was developed under Michael’s leadership, so to have continuity with The Warehouse is important and it supports our pedagogical approach.”

Kean architecture students travel regularly to significant architectural sites. “They go all over New York, and to places like Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts, so this is just part of what we do,” Mr. Mohney said of the classes and programs to be held in Princeton. “Every week, our students go out and spend the day looking at great works of architecture. Now, to have access to the residence of one of America’s great architects is amazing and it fits in with that pedagogy.”

The Warehouse was Mr. Graves’s “personal haven,” said Linda Kinsey, a longtime principal with Michael Graves Art and Design on Nassau Street. “It was his personal laboratory. He spent decades improving it. And all the years he taught at Princeton and post-Princeton, it was a place where students gathered.”

Built by Italian stonemasons nearly a century ago, The Warehouse is of Tuscan farmhouse vernacular, “which is what Michael loved about it,” Ms. Kinsey said. “At least one if not more of the annual gatherings for his classes at Princeton when he was teaching were held there. The idea that it would be used for educational purposes was his dream. That’s why he hoped Princeton University would have it, since he had such a close relationship. It would have been the natural choice to take it and use it.”

In rejecting the offer, the University issued a statement saying, “We were grateful to be able to consider the possibility of accepting Michael Graves’s properties, but concluded that we could not meet the terms and conditions associated with the gift.”

“I think he would have been disappointed,” Ms. Kinsey said of the decision. “But he would have seen the elegance in this solution. It would make sense to him. Kean will do a good job of programming. Michael worked with a very select group of academic architectural scholars to create a curriculum. That will guide what’s going to happen inside that house, for several more decades.”

The property includes two houses on Patton Avenue, one of which will be the residence of Mr. Graves’s longtime caregiver as long as she lives. The other will be used “for a variety of functions,” Mr. Mohney said. “I could see graduate students acting as docents, or maybe offices for faculty.” Nothing will be changed or torn down in The Warehouse, he added.

The properties were appraised for a total value of nearly $3.2 million. Terms of the sale still need to be worked out with lawyers. “We don’t know yet when it will begin,” Mr. Mohney said.

Ms. Kinsey said she is confident that Kean University will be sensitive to the fact that the property is located in a residential neighborhood. “There are some hurdles to cross in terms of making it operate the way Michael envisioned,” she said. “But everybody has great intentions. This is a house designed, furnished, and lovingly renovated by one of the world’s greatest architects. The fact that it’s going to be preserved is huge.”