Nestled between the Supple Science Building and San Marcos Hall, James Street Housing, an incoming on-campus residential complex, is set to welcome freshmen in fall 2025.
James Street Housing, which has a construction budget of $1.1 million, will be a seven-story building made up of single and double occupancy rooms, totaling 942 beds. In order to avoid previous housing issues, such as students staying in hotels, James Street Housing is coming one year after the long-awaited Hilltop Housing, another on-campus housing complex that has been in progress since 2020.
According to Executive Director of Housing and Residential Life (DHRL) Bill Mattera, James Street Housing is in the design document stage of the process, the second of three stages of the project.
“We have a basic design done and now we’re looking at sort of what it would be like to build it,” Mattera said. “Our hope is to begin construction in December, pending board review.”
University Architect and Director of Facilities Planning, Design and Construction (FPDC) Gordon Bohmfalk said they ran into challenges fitting the complex in the allotted site and sticking to the budget.
“The builder is in place to be able to check where we are in the budget, and what’s becoming a lot more important these days is if we can get it on time,” Bohmfalk said. “We’re trying to minimize the unexpected things with schedule and materials.”
Bohmfalk said they started the James Street Housing project to help close the gap on the need for new dorms on campus.
“The main thing is we would have enough dorms for students,” Bohmfalk said. “To be on campus is an important thing in someone’s college career, and that’s the main goal.”
Mattera said the new complex, in conjunction with Hilltop Housing, would increase on-campus living capacity by 1,900 students.
“Our hope is to just meet the needs of a campus of our size,” Mattera said. “We have a pretty conservative number of beds right now. It’s just building enough beds to match what our campus size is.”
Liberty Teague, a fashion merchandising freshman who currently lives in Chautauqua Hall, said she picked on-campus housing because it was convenient and would be a stepping stone toward being fully independent.
“My dorm has ping pong tables, pianos, kitchen and all things you can do without having to leave the building, which has helped,” Teague said.
Like other residential complexes, James Street Housing will include a main lobby, study rooms in each wing, two courtyards, laundry facilities and a common kitchen.
According to Bohmfalk, the new complex will contain rooms with single and double beds for students, along with designated rooms for resident assistants.
Teague said her experience with parking has not been good at Chautauqua Hall, as one parking lot is shared between three different residential complexes.
Bohmfalk said he is aware of the ongoing issue with parking on the university’s campus, specifically with dorms, and plans to address it in future projects. However, no additional parking is currently planned for the new dorm.
“With this project, most of [the parking] is all about drop-off and accessible spaces for the building,” Bohmfalk said.
Mattera said that DHRL’s objective is to provide on-campus accommodation options for returning students.
“Our hope is by adding both Hilltop and James Street we are increasing inventory to serve more students beyond their first year,” Mattera said.
