8
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013
9
A history of UVM housing and the Master Plan 1895 - Converse Hall built
1940 - Trinity Campus built 1956 - Mason/ Simpson/Hamilton Complex built
1947 - Coolidge Hall, Chittenden/Buckham/ Wills Complex built
1889 Robinson Hall built 1939 - Slade Hall built
1966-67 - UVM hires Office of Dan Kiley, Site and Landscape consultants to develop comprehensive Campus Masterplan.
1988 - University Planning Office develops first Board of Trustees-approved Campus Master Plan
1960 - Marsh/Austin/ Tupper Complex built 2006 - University Heights built 1971 - Harris/Millis Complex built
Housing plan would help city’s low vacancy verse Hall would also be renovated for undergraduate stuwhelming number of college students, he said. dents. Together, Burlington colleges in 2011 announced plans New buildings on Central and Athletic campuses would for proposed housing, the Allen & Brooks said. Nearly help keep the existing number of beds without further add1,500 new beds and decreased enrollment at some colleging to the number of students currently living on campus, es—UVM’s strategic action plan has mandated decreased the Cynic reported last April. enrollment to make the University more selective—will With off-campus living, Gustafson also said that they likely take pressure of the market, the report stated. wished to make better housing available The University plans to build a resiaddition to using a third-party developer for more student to the upperclassmen living off campus. dence hall between Harris Millis and “I think housing is a really housing in general, Gustafson says the university envisions Marsh-Austin-Tupper and Spear Street, Several halls on Athletic, Central and Redstone camimportant aspect of college housing similar to the privately owned both Kingsbury and Gustafson said. puses will be demolished or renovated, and Jeanne Mance Additionally, the University plans to social life and this new plan Redstone Lofts, but closer to downtown built in 1962 and Trinity Campus added in 1940 will be reBurlington. change where it houses different years purposed for graduate students, according to the plan. would enhance the quality “What it would ideally be is something of students. Kingsbury said extensive reIn addition, Chittenden, Wills and Buckham Halls on lucrative enough to pull students away search by Biddison Hier, Ltd., the Univer- of life for students” Central Campus, which were built in the 1940s, are likely from neighborhoods like Green Street sity’s consulting contracting company that -Carly Mata, Sophomore to be knocked down, as well as Coolidge Hall on Redstone and give them something like Redstone was hired in October, reported that sophoCampus. except off campus,” said Gustafson. mores preferred living on Redstone. Tom Gustafson, the vice president for administration He stressed, however, that this part of the project would “The University will continue to place as many sophoand University relations, said the Chittenden, Wills and mores at Redstone Campus to build on this successful locaBuckham complexes are getting too old. University. “We either have to extensively renovate or just build a When asked about the timeline of the master plan, Kingsbury also said that Trinity new hall,” Gustafson said. “And we would Kingsbury said that right now the University is working on campus and Jeanne Mance Hall would rather build new instead of funneling in a “We either have to extenbe renovated to make them more suitlot of money into 60 or 70 year-old buildsively renovate or just build on the plan. She also said that exactly what parts of the plan able for graduate students and upperings.” are implemented and when are dependent on the size of classmen, turning them into suite-like While plumbing issues and other main- a new hall. And we would the future student body. living areas. tenance problems over the years have made rather build new instead of Gustafson said that the planned complex behind Harris Sophomore transfer student Carly it apparent that some halls are in need of a Millis and Austin-Marsh-Tupper would most likely be the Mata said that although she did not makeover, the University’s push for more funneling in a lot of money spend any time in the UVM dorms, the housing is part of its plan to combat a down- into 60 or 70 year-old build“That could be completed in maybe three years or sometime she spent at Boston College made town rental market far below the national ings” thing like that,” he said. “It would potentially replace the her realize the placement of freshmen average. beds at the shoeboxes. We could then repurpose or take out and sophomores on campus has a huge In 2011, the Allen & Brooks Residency -Tom Gustafson, vice president for adthose fairly obsolete buildings. After that we could work to impact on their lives. Report showed that Chittenden County had ministration and University relations clear out Trinity and repurpose it for graduate students.” “I know people say that even though a 1.4 percent vacancy rate, far below the avThe Student and Faculty/Staff Housing Master Plan can you are separate from all of the other erage 12 percent. be accessed from the UVM Board of Trustees website. students you create your own community, but in my expeIn a November issue of the Cynic, assistant director for rience that was not the case,” Mata said. “I think housing is housing at Burlington’s Community and Economic DevelCheck online for video and web extras. a really important aspect of college social life and this new plan would enhance the quality of life for students.” Harris Millis, Marsh-Austin-Tupper complex and ConThe primary factor for Burlington’s situation is the overShoebox dorms demolished, graduate students on Trinity and a new residence hall on Spear Street are all slated to happen under UVM’s Student and Staff/Faculty Housing Master Plan. The plan, intended to guide Campus Planning Services and Residential Life through 2026, calls for the University
Proposed Housing Master Plan:
2011 - Biddison Hier hired for Campus Master Plan 2013
2026 - Prospected date for full implementation of Campus Master Plan and the Student and Staff/Faculty Housing Masterplan
By Ethan Rogers Photos by Becca Adams Converse photo courtesy of UVM Special Collections Housing Master Plan layouts from Board of Trustees website