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Plans are moving forward to demolish the four remaining Towers residence halls this summer, replacing the 1960s-era high-rise buildings on Blossom Street with an honors residence hall to open by fall 2008.
For several months, University Housing administrators have met with architects at Scott Garvin and Associates of Columbia and Sasaki & Associates in Boston to program the layout and design of the new residence hall.
"This will be a 600- to 700-bed residence hall, incorporating a lot of input we've received from student focus groups," said Gene Luna, director of University Housing. "We're aiming for Gold LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and a highly developed landscape plan that will speak well of the University at this very visible location."
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| Gene Luna |
The residence hall will house first- and second-year Honors College students; any remaining rooms could by filled by students now living in learning communities for music, engineering, pre-medicine, or other disciplines. Once construction of the new residence hall is complete, Maxcy College, the current freshman honors dorm, will house freshmen and sophomores from the general student population, along with Columbia Hall and Capstone.
While the honors dorm's exterior design remains under study--architects are considering either one large building or several smaller ones--the basic floor plan configuration is taking shape. Current plans call for "pods" that would include a common living area for 12 students who would live in either single- or double-occupancy rooms. Bathrooms shared by two to four students would be incorporated into each pod. A learning center will be incorporated into the main building and situated so as to allow convenient access for those who don't live in the residence hall.
When the Towers are demolished this summer, USC will have 900 fewer residence hall beds; the new honors residence hall will open two years later but will not completely replace that number. Future plans also call for demolishing the McBryde Quadrangle, making room for a new student health center.
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| Tim Coley |
"We had a very aggressive goal of housing 50 percent of our undergraduate students on campus, and we met that goal," said Tim Coley, director of Residence Life. "Since that goal was set, though, a number of privately developed student apartment complexes have opened near campus. Also, in the past few years we have opened several new residence halls, including East Quad, West Quad, and the Greek Village.
"So students have a lot of good options now that didn't exist several years ago. Therefore, while eliminating some of our obsolete residence halls like the Towers might lower the percentage of students in USC-owned residence halls, our students will have more student housing opportunities than ever before."
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The Towers
