Tulane Is Expanding When It Comes to Housing
This fall two new residence halls opened that were part of a $185 million project for student housing. The complete project that the dorms are part of, will house around 697 more students on campus. Hopefully, this will save some of the places close to campus.
The two new dorm buildings are called Lake and River and are located where Bruff Commons used to be. They both have single and two-person suites. They include a raised courtyard, student lounges, a space for event programming and a place to hold view parties. The 200-seat theater will be used as both a leisure space and lecture hall. On the ground floor between both sets of dorms will be a space called The Hub.
The total $187 million project is called The Village and first broke ground in 2020. “The whole purpose of this is to bring students back on campus. This is really intended to deepen the community here and really transform the whole undergraduate experience,” said Tulane University President Michael Fitts.
The project will also include replacing dorms Irby, Phelps and Paterson with two new residence halls. This means that there are only 153 beds that have been added this fall. Neighbors have had concerns for many years because Tulane has not invested in student housing, which has put a big strain on the surrounding neighborhood. “I’m glad that they’re finally doing something, but they’re playing catch up, ” said Keith Hardie, Maple Residents, Inc.
“We definitely value the importance of the uniqueness of our neighborhoods. So that’s part of the beauty of this project, that by constructing these new residence halls, we may be able to bring back those students who are in the neighborhoods, especially juniors,” explains Tulane Chief Operating Officer Patrick Norton.