Tuesday afternoon the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees’ Facilities Contracting Committee held a public meeting to discuss the new student housing plan to be located west of 15th street near the Union and Half Acre buildings on campus. There was not a final decision made on this plan and another meeting will be set for the future to further discuss it.
The general plan is to have two more dorms built, consisting of 960 beds, with a dining facility located on the first level of one of the dorms for students. Two more dorms will be built later in order to hold about 2,000 students total amongst the four resident halls. These all together are to take over from White Hall, Orr, McIntyre and Downey located on Grand Ave. The new dining facility will also take over for Washakie.
“A multi-phase replacement of UW’s outdated residence halls is a top construction priority of the university,” said a recent UW press release.
The location of the dorms on 15th street would extend the Fraternity and Sorority row to include the freshman and resident housing creating a sense of community and inclusiveness said John Burse of Mackey Mitchell Architects, who is designing the new plan along with the help from other architects as well.
Burse presented the plan, new and revised from a previous meeting in April, to the committee and Chairman John McKinley to show the alterations in hopes it would calm their concerns they expressed in the last meeting.
Concerns of the committee from the April meeting were there was too much density in one place and not enough green space, the scale feels too urban, combining dining and living may not be ideal, the views from the dining and dorms must be nice, and student proximity to each other and the campus buildings around must be ideal.
Burse took these concerns into consideration and altered the layout of the dorm buildings to include more green space and more space between current UW buildings and these dorms, and he showed what the views would be from the buildings through animated images.
However, this new plan took away a tunnel and enclosed bridge between the dining facility and the other dorm giving cover to students, like the tunnels do in the current dorms, from storms on their way to their meals. The idea of adding tunnels to the new dorms was brought up by the committee but McKinley said it would not be a possibility. He said there is too much underground currently in regards to utilities for the other buildings. He said it would be too complicated to move everything to find tunnel space and there are safety concerns with tunnels that he does not want.
Burse said the new plan will “serve as a downtown for the residents of this exciting city” with the new dorms and dining facility. The shape of the building is to emphasize the aspect of community, said Burse.
There were still concerns from the committee after seeing the revised plan though.
Vice President for Student Affairs Kim Chestnut was a part of the meeting. She said she does not want “perfection to be the enemy of progress” in regards to making a decision. She said she is unsure how long they would have to wait to be able to make this renovation again and wants to move forward with the plan.
Kermit Brown, a member of the committee and the Board of Trustees, said he is willing to give it “the old college try” because he is skeptical of starting a whole new plan.
Others on the committee believe the plan should be perfect due to the large amount of money they are spending on the project though.
The university has about 200 million dollars for this renovation including demolition of Wyo Hall which is currently located where a dorm will be placed, the relocation of facilities, and construction for the parking deck. This money is not from the state but from a bond, said McKinley.
There were also questions taken from the public anonymously on their concerns for this addition to campus.
For example, a father of students at the Lab School located on campus is concerned that his children will be exposed to “college life” too soon in their lives. The dorms and dining facility will be located directly across from the Lab School making contact between the children and college students a realistic possibility.
Another individual from the public stated the university should be spending this money elsewhere. The individual is a custodian for the university and said there are not enough custodians as is and they are underpaid for the work they do.
A student of UW also shared a concern in regards to parking. The student has a disability and said parking is already difficult in the Union parking lot to go to Coe Library and this plan would take away that parking. It was stated in the meeting that a parking deck is in the works instead. The student said they are concerned the new parking would not be ADA approved.
