ºüÀêÊÓƵ University said Thursday it will renovate and expand student housing by building two residence halls in the heart of its midtown campus.
Combined, the eight-story buildings will have more than 900 beds. The first building, scheduled to open in time for fall classes in 2016, will go up on university-owned property at Laclede and South Spring avenues. Clark’s bar once occupied part of the site, which is currently green space.
SLU plans to open the second building a year later on what is now a parking lot on Laclede, adjacent to the Griesedieck housing complex, which will be renovated.
Kent Porterfield, SLU’s vice president for student development, said the projects are part of a campus master plan that school officials and a consultant began working on last fall. A key motivation for improving housing is student recruitment and retention, said Porterfield, adding that freshmen and sophomores will occupy the new residence halls.
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“It’s certainly a major issue for parents and students,†he said. “They are very interested in us developing new student housing.â€
Porterfield added that SLU has done no major student housing projects “in a long, long time.â€
Costs of the two residence halls and renovation of the Griesedieck complex, which includes Walsh and Clemens halls, have yet to be determined. Hastings+Chivetta Architects of ºüÀêÊÓƵ is doing final design work on the two new buildings, which will have suite-style accommodations.
Construction by McCarthy Building Cos. could begin as early as next spring on the 450-bed project at Laclede and Spring, SLU said.
Porterfield said the 470-bed building to open in 2017 could share dining facilities with the adjacent Griesedieck complex. Construction of the second building will get underway after SLU renovates Griesedieck Hall, built in 1963, and the flanking Walsh, built in 1952, and Clemens, built in 1947, residential halls. Porterfield said SLU will finance the projects through issuance of revenue bonds.
SLU requires students to live in university owned or managed housing during their first two years in school. Porterfield said a “demand analysis†examined several sites for new housing but found “it was very clear that underclassmen want to be right in the core of the campus.â€
Heights and basic shapes of the new buildings have been determined but SLU has yet to decide what exterior materials to use.
“We would like to tie in the architecture of the university,†Porterfield said.
In furthering a trend in student housing nationwide, plans for the new SLU residential halls accentuate private student accommodations while providing more group lounges and study areas.
Opening the two new residence halls will increase to about 4,450 the number of students living in SLU-owned or managed housing. That number includes conversion of SLU’s Water Tower Inn as housing for 58 graduate students by August 2016.
More than 40 percent of SLU’s undergraduates live on campus now. That number is expected to exceed 50 percent after the currently planned construction and renovation.
Porterfield said he doubts SLU’s growing housing program will affect projects by private developers who have built, are building or planning about a half-dozen student-housing projects near the university. SLU’s enrollment is steady at about 13,300, but most upperclassmen and graduate students will continue to live off campus, he said.
“We’re only addressing underclassmen housing at this point, and that doesn’t compete with off-campus housing around us,†said Porterfield, adding that beyond what is planned now, more SLU housing is unlikely for at least seven years.