Plans for new ‘UW Village’ on the way

The University of Washington Housing and Food Services (HFS) is working on a solution to the overcrowded living situations that many students face in the current residence halls.

“We are in the early stages of a capital project for our residence halls system that calls for building several new facilities on the west part of the campus over the next 10 years,” said Eric Godfrey, vice provost for student life.

Currently, the UW provides approximately 5,000 beds for students on campus.

“These new facilities will create about 2,500 new beds for our students, a very substantial increase,” Godfrey added.

Half of these buildings will be for freshmen and sophomores. The other half, many of which are apartment-like buildings, will be for upper-level students as well as graduate and professional students.

Godfrey hopes that these new facilities will alleviate some of the current problems students face in the residence halls.

“We currently have almost 1,000 students residing in our halls now in triples, and so one of the immediate benefits is that we would be able to eliminate those,” he said.

Rob Lubin, HFS assistant director for facilities and operations, said the new buildings will be six to seven stories tall. The first story of each building will be a common area and may include resource rooms, offices or classrooms and the residence halls will be located above.

Unlike the traditional residence halls, these new facilities will include more student resources and the room layout is different. Many students are used to sharing a room and having to travel down the hallway to use a bathroom that fifty other students share. With these new halls, many rooms will have their own private bathrooms. The other buildings containing apartments will be much like Stevens Court and will have full apartment facilities.

“Another change we are seeking is to have a higher level of resources in the building,” Lubin said.

These resources may include more group study space, classroom spaces and other academic services.

Lubin has noticed a positive energy around living with peers that are going through a similar experience and he sees that students seem to take advantage of resources that accompany a large group of people living close to campus.

“It seems like the student today really enjoys the on-campus experience,” he said.

The project is also intended to help the renovation of the current halls move more quickly and smoothly. As a new hall is built, an old one will close for renovation. This pattern will continue until all residence halls have been renovated.

“I think we need the expansion because students shouldn’t have to live in triples,” sophomore Tyson Strotz said, who lives in Haggett Hall. Strotz also believes that the interior of Haggett is in need of renovation.

Godfrey said an additional goal of the project is to create a closer-knit community.

“One of the other overarching objectives is to create opportunities for more of our students to live on campus,” Godfrey said. “Which then, of course, helps build a bigger sense of community, connections and engagement.”

The UW has been given five sites to work with and build on and the Board of Regents has already approved an architect. The location for this new community of student housing is immediately to the west of the Ave, close to Northeast Campus Parkway and Terry and Lander halls.

“We’re intending to have a large metropolitan market in the area as well,” Lubin said.

The presence of retail stores, coffee shops and recreational areas in the new community has been discussed, but no decisions have been made yet.

“It’s our hope that these new buildings will create the feel of a village,” Godfrey said.

The new facilities are projected to be complete by 2014 and renovations will begin shortly after.

Reach reporter Lia Pittman at news@dailyuw.com.