Correction appended
The University has taken the first step in constructing a new student housing complex near campus for graduate and upper-level students.
In a meeting July 8, the Campus Planning Committee approved the proposed site and a user group for the Moss Street Student Housing project, which is currently expected to house between 65 and 70 upper-level students on the east side of campus.
Gregg Lobisser, the user group’s proposed chairperson, said the University hopes to have the facility completed and ready to house students by fall 2010.
“The plan is still in its infancy, but we have penciled in an ambitious schedule,” Lobisser, who is also the EMU director of student activities, said.
The University hopes the complex will help to better meet the increased demand for student housing, which has been keenly felt recently because of the high numbers of freshman students enrolling for fall 2008, Lobisser said.
This building will help the University develop a “good variety of housing stock” beyond the traditional residence hall design, said Allen Gidely, associate director of student housing.
The Oregon Legislature approved the funding for the $8.5 million housing project in 2003, Lobisser said. This project is one of many that the administration hopes to undertake to answer the University’s student housing shortage, said planning associate Christine Thompson.
The Moss Street Student Housing user group – which includes representatives from University housing, the planning committee, faculty, students, and a neighbor – is still waiting for final approval from University President Dave Frohnmayer before it can begin meeting this summer.
Lobisser said the user group will spend the summer in a “programming workshop” where it will develop the fundamental organization of the facility in a broad sense, then determine the approximate cost of the proposed facility to see if plans need to be altered.
“We will see if there is a match between what money we have and what we want to build,” Lobisser said.
The group plans to hire an architect for the project by early fall and begin the schematic design process. Lobisser hopes to hire a construction crew for the facility by the end of spring 2009 to meet the overall construction deadline of fall 2010.
The proposed construction site, located on Moss Street between East 15th Avenue and East 17th Avenue, sits on University-owned property on the east side of campus.
Lobisser said that the building will be a good fit for the neighborhood because it will be a good transition between the University’s educational buildings and residence halls to the houses sitting on the east side of campus.
The complex will most likely be designed for quad-style living and will give the residents their own private rooms and possibly bathrooms along with a shared common area.
“It will be designed as a residential facility that is geared toward students other than freshmen,” Lobisser said. “It’s a move toward a greater sense of privacy and your own space, but not an apartment.”
Lobisser said he thinks this facility will improve the residential experience for older students.
“We want to make sure the first-year students have a quality residential experience, but that residential experience is also important for upper class students as well,” he said.
Currently the University owns four apartment complexes that it rents out to graduate and upper-class students, as well as several houses on the east side of campus near the proposed Moss Street Student Housing facility site, according to the University website.
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