Construction of a new residence hall that will cost just under $28 million and house 225 students will begin around Thanksgiving and be completed for student move-in by August of 2015, according to Director of Facilities Design and Construction John McEnrue.
“There is a strong demand from students for more campus housing,” McEnrue said. “Currently many freshmen are living in students rooms that are tripled.”
The new residence hall will be located behind Lenape Hall, a decision that McEnrue called a “logical choice” when taking into consideration the landscape of the campus and the aim to not overcrowd one area, such as Hasbrouck or Parker quads.
The new hall will be positioned in a spot that adds to the Lenape and Esopus Hall area, McEnrue said.
The hall will create a cluster of buildings — joining the most recently constructed residence halls, Lenape and Esopus — that will all together house nearly 700 students and be known as South Complex, according to Director of Residence Life Corinna Caracci.
Caracci said she knew there was a desire for increased housing, particularly among transfer students, who in the last seven or eight years she said could not be provided with campus housing.
Out of 300 transfer students who requested housing this semester, Caracci said the school was only able to offer rooms to 105, all of whom were assigned to live in a triple — with two other students.
“It’s exciting that the campus is growing and we can offer more housing options,” Caracci said.
The new hall will also contain a café, a more convenient food option than Hasbrouck Dining Hall or the Student Union for students who will live in the one of the three buildings in the South Complex.
McEnrue said that the café, although geared toward and constructed with those living in this section in mind, would be available for all students.
“The most interesting feature will be the new cafe that will be added to the facility,” McEnrue said. “It will be close to the building’s entrance so that it is accessible to all students on campus, not just the students living in the new residence hall. This will provide dining options for students in this section of the campus for the first time.”
In addition to a café, another facet of the new hall will be its own gym within the building, a feature it will share with Esopus Hall.
Esopus will be the template of the design for the new hall, Caracci said, with clusters of rooms around bathrooms as opposed to long and narrow corridor hallways like those of the Parker Quad residence halls. She also said that floors will not be gendered.
The new hall has yet to be given a name.