Collegiate Times

Next month, construction will begin on one of two new residence halls.

Temporarily named New Residence Hall I and New Residence Hall II, these new residence halls will provide students with a seemingly different feel than what current on-campus residence halls provide. New Residence Hall I will be located near Harper Hall and the Career Services Building and will house 256 students. The residence hall will be co-ed and may include men and women living in rooms next door to each other. The main floor will house Student Affairs offices and the upper floors will house students. There will be study rooms throughout the dorm.The hall style will be like a hotel, featuring double rooms with their own private bathrooms, similar the Donaldson Brown Hall for graduate students.

"This is the first time dorms will have private bathrooms for each room," said Edward F.D. Spencer, associate vice president of Student Affairs. New Residence Hall II will be across from Cassell Coliseum between Ambler-Johnston and Pritchard Halls. It will hold about 250 students and will also be co-ed. The hall style for "New Residence Hall II" will be different than any other residence hall on campus. Instead of traditional or suite-style halls, this hall will be more of an apartment complex. The residence hall will house large apartment-like living areas with twenty students per housing unit. In the center will be a large living area including furniture, a kitchenette and a washer and dryer. Off the living area will be ten rooms with the same layout as New Residence Hall I.New Residence Hall II gives all the amenities of an apartment and develops community, said Rick Johnson, director of Housing and Dining Services. Building these two new residence halls will serve as "swing space" for the first phase of the housing master plan developed 15-20 years ago. The first phase includes renovations to AJ.

New Residence Hall I will house some but not all of the students displaced due to renovations to East AJ. New Residence Hall II will house those students displaced due to the renovations on West AJ.

"A major goal of building the new residence halls is to add up-to-date rooms in the housing system in sufficient quantity to allow an extensive renovation program of older residence halls," said Scott Hurst, a university architect, in an e-mail.The expected time frame for renovations on both East and West AJ is about two years. The total cost of building the two new residence halls and renovating Ambler Johnston will be approximately $115 million.The new residence halls are "the type of rooms that upperclassmen say they want," Johnson said. Through revenue bonds, investors and student housing fees, the university hopes to gather the money needed to complete both new residence halls. New Residence Hall I is expected to be completed by July 2009, and New Residence Hall II is expected to be completed by July 2011. Both residence halls will be adorned with Hokie Stone.