CMU planning $10.2 million residence hall project

Carnegie Mellon University is planning to start construction later this year on a $10.2 million residence hall to house 252 freshmen.

The City Planning Commission will hold a hearing on the project on April 17. Eventually, the project would have to be approved by Pittsburgh City Council.

Campus officials said the five-story building, to be constructed on Morewood Avenue, would help consolidate the 1,300 freshmen spread throughout the campus and elsewhere in Oakland and enhance their first year.

'Living in a group where you have common issues is very valuable,' said Michael Murphy, dean of student affairs at Carnegie Mellon. 'The friendships tend to be strong.'

Currently, 240 first-year students live in E Tower of Morewood Gardens and 172 in Hamerschlag House, two areas dedicated to them. The rest are scattered in campus housing with upperclassmen or in some of the 600 apartments the university rents.

The university is in the midst of a 10-year, $60 million renovation of residence halls. That makes them more popular to the upperclassmen living in them and squeezes more incoming students into apartments rented by the university.

Since 1996, the proportion of students choosing to remain in university housing from year to year has increased from 67 percent to 72 percent, said Tim Michael, Carnegie Mellon's director of campus housing.

As a result, he said, the number of freshmen living in apartments rented by the university has more than doubled - from 80 in 1997 to 175 now.

The new building would be a traditional residence hall with a group bathroom. That would buck the trend of apartment-style housing cropping up on campuses here and around the country, Michael said.

But the new residence hall would offer modern amenities: air conditioning, individual temperature controls, telephone, cable television, access to the university computer system and lots of public space for students to gather.

The occupants of the residence hall would bear the cost of repaying the bond that finances its construction. The architect will be Bohlin Cywynski Jackson, a firm with a Downtown office.

'We want to start over Christmas break,' said project manager Peg Hart.

Construction would be completed in April 2003. It would cost a student about $4,600 a year to live there, Michael said.

The residence hall would be constructed of red brick and cream-colored, recast concrete. The brick would match neighboring Morewood Gardens and the concrete would resemble the limestone of adjacent Mudge House.

University officials said they have met with neighbors to address their concerns, mostly about potential noise.

Michael said the building will not add traffic and may reduce it. The additional beds would attract many students who would otherwise live off campus, he argued.

Kathy Boykowycz, president of the Oakland Community Council, said her group probably would not object to the project.

'It's on campus,' she said. 'That's not something our group would particularly be interested in.'

Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7828.