Second home
Universities' glitzier residence halls not your father's dorm

By Angelle Bergeron

As the baby-boomer generation approaches retirement age, the housing built to accommodate their college years is being put out to pasture.

Throughout Louisiana and the country universities are embarking on massive renovation/restoration and demolition/construction programs to replace antiquated student housing with glitzier, updated, more spacious residential facilities.

"When I went to college 30 years ago, I went with a toothbrush and a comb and shared a shower with 50 other guys," said Steve Waller, associate director for facilities, department of residential life at Louisiana State University. "Kids today haven't shared a bath or bedroom with anyone, even in high school."

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Whether it's privacy, separate baths and heating and cooling systems, kitchens, security or cable and internet access, today's students expect much more than the institutional-style housing hastily constructed by universities across the country to accommodate college-bound boomers.

"We don't even call them dorms anymore," Waller said. "They are residential halls, like your home."

The current building trend is returning to a traditional English model, built when colleges were a lot smaller, said Michael Evans, vice president of the Virginia-based architectural firm of Hanbury, Evans, Wright, Blattas + Co. In addition to providing the amenities that students demand, unique home-style dwellings deliver a sense of distinct identity to students who sometimes feel overwhelmed by today's larger universities, Evans added.

"Back in the early 60s and 70s, universities across the country were building as quickly and cheaply as they could," he said. "A lot of people refer to it as warehousing, where everyone was just trying to get beds."

During the past 18 years Hanbury, Evans, Wright, Blattas + Company has designed more than 150,000 beds of student housing on 70 university campuses nationwide, Evans said.

"We are working on 10 residential colleges around the country right now (including LSU)," he said.

Appealing housing factors largely in the attraction and retention of students, which has become increasingly competitive in Louisiana since the introduction of a statewide community college system, said Nick Bruno, vice president for business affairs at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

"Some students who previously could have gone to a four-year school, who may not have had the academic credentials, will now have to go to community college and then migrate into a four-year institution," Bruno said. "It's important for us to have those facilities and academics to retain the better students."

Creative financing structures are making it easier for universities to expedite student housing projects.

In the 1990s Louisiana universities began to use a finance model of non-profit corporations by issuing tax-exempt bonds to secure revenues and then managing the development of properties.

"Funds are guaranteed and construction and design can move forward at a quicker pace than waiting for state funds," Bruno said.

Using that model, ULM embarked on a two-year, $35 million plan of renovation, demolition and construction in summer 2004 that by late 2006 will result in only one residential or auxiliary structure remaining from the original inventory, Bruno said.

JPI Apartment Construction LP, the contractor for the ULM housing, has completed $50 million to $100 million annually in student housing over the past five or six years, said Karl Meeks, divisional vice president.

"We've invested a lot on the technology side of business and our IT department meets with the university IT group to make sure we exceed their demands for limited access security systems, card swipes, whatever they want," Meeks said.

By this fall, JPI will have completed phase one of the ULM work, including demolition of two residential buildings, renovation and upgrading of two existing buildings, construction of three apartment buildings and a student health center.

Phase two, which will be completed by the fall 2006 semester, includes the demolition of several residential buildings, police station and health center, as well as construction of three suite-style residential buildings. The renovations were handled in two separate phases to squeeze the work into the summer break.

"Student housing is a different business because regardless of how many days it rains or snows, the kids are coming to school in August," Meeks said. "We maintain a creative schedule to ensure that we are done on time."

Construction encompasses a large portion of the campus and requires several separate project managers and more than 350 workers at peak times, Meeks said.

"We are dealing with the demolition of more than 10 residential buildings and construction of six wood framed buildings with masonry exterior or masonry and stucco veneer exterior, and each building differs between suite and apartment-style," he said.

"There is a point in the job when we are framing, roughing in mechanical and drywalling all at the same time."

JPI and other such contractors embrace a specialty niche that differs from homebuilders and other commercial builders.

"We bring in our own subs because our industry is unique in the type of work and amount of manpower we require," Meeks said.

The same is true for Birmingham-based Capstone Development Corp., the contractor currently working on phase two of a $55 million master plan of renovation, demolition and new construction of student housing and associated facilities at Southeastern University in Hammond.

In order to produce the final product in time for the new semester, Capstone relies upon specialty contractors that are able to produce a lot of work fast, including BR Brick Masons of Conroe, Texas.

"We drag them all over the United States," said Craig Jendrusch, project manager. "When we call and tell them they're behind, they will send about 50 more people."

Capstone completed phase one at Southeastern in January.

"It was an eight-month schedule, but even with all the rain we did it in about five months," Jendrusch said.

That $16 million contract included demolition of the 1960s-built housing units and construction of four new buildings. The contractor also won the $17 million contract for phase two, which includes the same process of demolishing existing structures and replacing them with larger, more modern facilities that will provide the same number of accommodations.

Capstone began phase two in July and is scheduled to complete the job in August. Crews are working long shifts seven days a week to ensure the job is finished when students show up with their suitcases.

"Getting workers to go really fast has been my only challenge," Jendrusch said. "At the front end we told the subs, when you bid the job make sure you have the manpower to meet the schedule."

Probably the largest portion of the workforce has been the 50 or 60 framers required to handle the predominantly wood-frame construction, Jendrusch said. By the end of February the workforce swelled to about 400 when the site was teeming with brick masons and sheetrock workers.

Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge has embarked on a $274 million plan to renovate its entire housing system, said Steve Waller, associate director for facilities. The first phase, a $15 million apartment construction, was completed in 2003, followed by a $3 million upgrade of an old athletic dormitory.

The next project in the plan involves replacement of two housing facilities, which were demolished last summer. The removal was complete in December but the bid for construction of four replacement buildings came in too high.

"The original plan was to award a contract in December and start construction in January for a 2006 opening," Waller said. The project is currently being re-designed to include only three buildings and LSU is expecting to advertise and award by the end of March or mid-April.

"We have received approval from the Legislature for three other projects that are in design as part of the 15-year plan," Waller said. Included are a $10 million renovation and addition that will begin in 2007; a $24 million renovation of two buildings, slated for completion in 2008 and 2009; and a $24 million renovation of another housing facility.

"We will continue on through all 19 of our facilities for the next 15 years," Waller added.

Tulane University in New Orleans is still in the design phase for the next portion of its master plan to upgrade student housing. Hanbury, Evans, Wright, Blattas + Company designed a master plan for Tulane about 10 years ago and the university has been gradually working to upgrade or replace its aging housing stock, said Robert Hailey, director of university services.

"This summer we completed a $5.5 million facelift of Monroe Hall, which is a 14-story, high-rise residential hall on campus," Hailey said. Last April, piles were driven for another residential facility that is scheduled to open August.

Demolition of another old residential facility may begin this year, pending final plans and budget, Hailey added.

"We are in the middle of a $37 million University Center renovation scheduled to complete in spring 2006," he said.