In an effort to increase both the amount and quality of undergraduate on-campus housing, the University is renovating the building at 315 Thayer St. and considering several possible spaces for new residence halls which, while still years away, would be part of a "larger plan" for revamping the housing system, according to Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for Facilities Management.
The basic design for the renovated building at 315 Thayer is complete, though some design details still need to be finalized, Maiorisi said. "We're getting ready to hire a design-build company," he said. Construction will begin in August and should be completed by the summer of 2012 so students can move in that fall.
The University will have more on-campus beds when the renovation of 315 Thayer — currently part of the auxiliary housing system — is complete. The renovated building will house about 60 students, Maiorisi said. It currently has 32 residents, according to an Oct. 4, 2010 Herald article. Though the building is now divided into towers like Caswell Hall, the floors of the building after the renovations will be unified in a more traditional hallway style.
The building will be composed of suites containing living rooms, kitchenettes, bathrooms and single bedrooms, according to a preliminary floor plan. Current plans call for the first three floors to have two suites with four bedrooms, one suite with five rooms and one with two. The fourth floor will likely feature a combination of suites and singles. The basement will have a large lounge and kitchen, plus laundry facilities.
There will be an interior elevator and ramps that will make the building wheelchair accessible, Mairoisi said. The renovated building will also feature bicycle parking.
Carolyn Maiorana '13 currently lives in the basement of the building. "It's a nice place to live," she said. But "I feel our apartment has had way more issues than the other ones in terms of leaks" and other problems, she added.
"There's definitely a lot of work that needs to be done here," she said, noting that the building needs improvements to be "up to par with Brown dorms."
New dorms near New Dorm?
Overcrowding in on-campus housing is no secret. According to a Feb. 7 Herald article, about 50 students are being housed in temporary housing such as converted lounges and kitchens, leaving many dorms short on common spaces.
The Corporation discussed the housing crunch at its February meeting, Maiorisi said.
Though no new dorms are currently planned, the University is looking for a place to relocate the Office of Continuing Education from its current location so the Office of Residential Life can be moved to the Office of Continuing Education's space, and the first floor of Wayland House can be converted to student housing, Maiorisi said.
One possible location for a new residence hall is the parking lot on Brook Street next to Barbour Hall. Another is the site of the East Side Mini-Mart, which is Brown-owned property, Maiorisi said.
That area would not be a bad location for a new residence hall, Charlotte Wilhelm GS said, as long as the displacement of parking spaces is addressed.
"I think more new dorms are very necessary," said Tasnuva Islam '11, a resident of Young Orchard Apartments. "It's good that they're thinking about it."
Megan Lin '11, another Young Orchard resident, said the location is "not inconvenient." "I really like living down here," she said. But she worried about what might happen to businesses around the East Side Mini-Mart if new residence halls were placed at that site.
The parking lot behind 315 Thayer and the vacant spot on the south side of Lincoln Field are other potential locations for a new dorm, Maiorisi said.
Maiorana expressed concern that a new dorm east of 315 Thayer would be "disconnected" from the rest of campus, the way she feels Perkins Hall currently is. "It's definitely going to be spreading Brown out more," she said.
One complication to the proposals is that there are restrictions on where Brown can place future buildings.
"At the time that the Power Street parking garage was built, the University agreed to a deed restriction on that property to limit the height that any building on that site could be developed," Maiorisi wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
"There's an institutional zone in which the University has rights to develop for higher education uses," Maiorisi added. "If we propose to expand beyond that zone, we need special permission from the Providence Zoning Board."
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