Colorado State University Residence Halls Open Tomorrow with Major Renovations

More than 5,200 students will move onto the Colorado State University campus this week, with most expected on opening day, Thursday, Aug. 18.

"The halls will open at full capacity this year with a handful of late applicant students assigned to temporary spaces," said Jim Dolak, executive director of Housing and Dining Services at CSU. "We expect to move students who are in temporary housing to permanent rooms within the first week or two of classes."

There are typically several openings after the first day of move-in, according to Housing and Dining Services. Those spaces are then reassigned as soon as possible to students who are in temporary housing. In the meantime, students in overflow housing will be assigned to large lounge spaces that have been set up with all the amenities of regular rooms.

Colorado State’s campus housing will look very different this year with several major renovation and construction projects recently completed or currently underway.

With these and several other campus construction projects underway, including Engineering II, the library addition and the Lory Student Theatre, traffic flow and parking for opening day will be different than previous years. Students and their families are encouraged to visit the Housing and Dining Services website at www.housing.colostate.edu to download a campus map with directions to each residence hall.

"Residence hall students will be greeted on campus this fall with renovations and improvements to the halls," Dolak said. "We are putting the finishing touches on new landscaping at Edwards and Ingersoll halls and adding new exteriors to Corbett Hall and Parmelee Hall."

Construction began in May to add a fourth floor to Parmelee, which opened in the 1960s. In addition to the fourth floor, the renovation features new exteriors, landscaping, student kitchens and study rooms. An elevator will be installed during the renovation and student rooms will receive upgrades. The new fourth floor rooms will be lofted and feature air conditioning, new furnishings and oversize windows.

Students will live in the south side of the building this fall while renovations continue to the north side. Because the north and south sides of the building are separated by a large lobby and two arcades, construction noise should be minimal. Housing and Dining Services has made all residents of Parmelee aware of the construction schedule.

"To thank the students living in Parmelee for their patience during renovations, we will help them move to the newly renovated half of the building for spring semester. We also will hold a raffle that awards some lucky residents a new lofted room in the fourth-floor addition," Dolak said.

Once the Parmelee residents have moved to the north side, construction will commence on the south side of the building. The project will be complete for summer 2012 in time for Preview.

The landscaping at Edwards and Ingersoll Hall is the final phase of a major renovation project for those buildings that begin two years ago with an interior renovation. Renovation continued last summer with new brick exteriors and windows and will be completed in mid-September with new landscaping and additional bike racks.

"Fewer than half of our residence hall students purchase parking passes for their cars, but 80 percent bring bikes," said Tonie Miyamoto, director of communications and sustainability for Housing and Dining Services. "To support our green community, we have added bike racks at Edwards and Ingersoll, more trees around the halls and we will use low-water foundation plantings for the new landscaping."

Corbett Hall also received a green make-over this summer. The building’s F and G wings – the two wings facing Laurel Street – have new gabled roofs, energy-efficient windows and new brick exteriors with insulated foam underneath. When similar renovations were completed on Edwards and Ingersoll last year, steam heat use for the two buildings dropped 50 percent in the first three months, saving $20,000 in utility costs per building during those months.

"We hope to see similar utility savings at Corbett," Dolak said. "Our aim with these projects is to update our facilities to make them look and function better."

The Corbett project will continue in summer 2012 with D and C wings, the two wings that face Plum Street. Future phases, not yet scheduled, will complete the remaining wings and renovate the courtyard to create pass-through traffic paths, enhanced student recreation space and new landscaping.
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