New student housing

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Binghamton University’s East Campus Housing

Planned by Trudeau and Stantec, sprawling complex includes nine buildings

Binghamton University students in the East Campus Housing complex are now living in state-of-the-art suites – a result of the planning and vision of Trudeau Architects.

“With competition for students growing each year, the quality of student housing has become a major factor for students and parents when evaluating colleges,” said Bart Trudeau, principal of the firm. “Parents want their children to be safe at college, and the students want the comforts of home.”

The largest student housing project in New York state included eight new dormitory buildings containing 3,083 beds on the campus’ east end and a 65,000-square-foot Collegiate Center to provide kitchen and dining areas, offices, and facilities for student programs. The last phase of construction was completed for fall 2013 occupancy. 

A master plan

In 2002, university officials called on the Trudeau team to prepare a capital plan for their 2 million square feet of student housing. The plan called for the campus to modernize its Dickinson and Newing dormitories.

Although the buildings were for the most part structurally sound, they were showing signs of aging and provided few modern conveniences. Corridors had low ceilings with old-fashioned fluorescent lighting, making them dark and tunnel-like. The laundry areas – which can be gathering places if they’re clean and modern – were unappealing.

During extensive study between 2003 and 2005, the Trudeau team determined that the old buildings would be too expensive to renovate, due to their poor energy performance and the difficulty of upgrading the mechanical and electrical systems. They added that, although modernizing the buildings could help the university in the short-term, new construction would better address its long-term plans and meet its need to accommodate growth.

Involving all stakeholders

Working with Burt Hill Architects from Philadelphia (now part of Stantec), Trudeau completed the master plan over the next two years and was selected as a team to carry out the plan through design and construction.

The team worked with the university to form focus groups and committees to collect input on the design, including students, faculty, alumni and numerous staff groups that operate the campus facilities. They were especially careful about being sensitive to student community traditions.

They developed an individualized plan for the dormitories that encourages social interaction by placing lounges on each floor while providing privacy by housing students in suites. These suites also helped to reduce custodial staffing services because of their efficient layout. Floors were also designed to have smart study rooms.

The new residence halls were designed with higher floor-to-floor dimensions and long structural spans. This allows the buildings to be used in the future for other purposes.

The buildings were designed to integrate into the natural surroundings and take advantage of local vistas. They were designed for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Gold and Silver certification and most buildings have received certification.

A new environment

Construction was done in four phases starting in March 2008 and coordinated to minimize disruption to the students and without decreasing the net number of beds. The first housing unit opened in 2009, the next three dormitory buildings and Collegiate Center were under construction at the same time and were completed in the summer of 2011. This new configuration of this part of the campus opened up room to build the Collegiate Center.

The $376 million project increased the capacity of the student housing in these two communities by more than 20% overall, and gave it some of the best student housing in the nation.

“These new residence buildings provide a bright, airy, spacious, social, and amenity-rich living environment,” Trudeau said. “They have suites large common areas, study rooms, and bathroom facilities with modern conveniences. These housing units will certainly help to attract students to Binghamton University.”

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Video: The Binghamton University East Campus Housing Project