One word substitution

plaza?

garden?

commons?

Take a look at Why be anonymous?.

Quadrangle on college campuses, or "the quad"

DelmobileQuadrangle on college campuses, or "the quad"

Hi, Del.
I always assumed the term "quadrangle" in this context included the buildings. Am I wrong?
On the other hand, the OP is ambiguous on this point.
Best wishes, - A.

Well, I looked up quadrangle (after I posted of course, can't do anything that actually makes sense now can I) and apparently architecturally it's only supposed to apply when a single building comprises most of the surround.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrangle_%28architecture%29

Many thanks, Del.
In my case, it was four discrete buildings. I didn't live in it. (I lived in a ****** castle tower!) So I can't remember to what extent the buildings communicated at the corners. Maybe there was just a sidewalk between them. But they did overlap, so they were not just corner-to-corner. Sorry, no picture.

I'm sighing with satisfaction at the correct use of "discrete"

We aim to please!
Seems like I learned it from programming factory machinery. A sensor which produced a single yes-or-no signal was "discrete."
But my correct usages are generally offset by incorrect ones!