UConn Board of Trustees Approves New Residence Hall
The Board of Trustees for the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn., recently approved the construction of a new residence hall in south campus.
A university news release reports that the new residence hall, scheduled to open in fall 2024, will have 657 beds and a dining hall with a capacity of 500. The new dorm will stand near the existing South Campus Residence Halls to create a new, shared courtyard between the two.
The project’s budget is $215 million, and funds will come mainly through UConn-issued special obligation bonds, according to the news release. Amenities are set to include communal and private lounges and common spaces, a game room, seminar rooms and meeting rooms, bicycle storage, laundry facilities and multipurpose spaces. The new dining hall was also designed to lessen wait times at other campus dining facilities.
The facility was designed with sustainability features meeting LEED Gold requirements and Connecticut High Performance Building standards. The building will use geothermal wells to tap into the planet’s stable temperature and reduce energy consumption, the news release reports. Landscaped stormwater management areas will also limit water runoff into the nearby Mirror Lake.
The university partnered with architecture firm Sasaki for the building’s design, according to the UConn website.
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Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].