Construction To Begin on UC Master Plan "Anchor"

Student life at UC is about to get a boost with the "groundbreaking" of a new residence complex Wednesday, Jan. 31.

The new facilities, the Jefferson Residence Halls, are part of the Master Plan and are designed to serve as a focal point of student and intellectual life. The new halls will be located on the site of the university's former tennis courts and Lot 2, on the west side of Jefferson Ave.

They will serve as the west end "anchor" of UC's emerging Main Street with the One Stop admission/financial aid/student services facility (to be constructed on the site of Beecher Hall) will serve as the east end "anchor."

In addition, the new halls will help resolve a housing crunch since the current undergraduate resident halls are often filled to capacity. Demand is only expected to increase with a significant rise in the traditional college-age population, an echo from the Baby Boom generation. Nationally, college enrollment is projected to rise 10-12 percent in coming years while it should rise 6-8 percent in Ohio, according to Mitchel Livingston, vice president of student affairs and human resources.

The 3.5acre site along Jefferson Ave will be leveled, and construction will begin this winter on three low-rise residence halls. The halls, slated for completion and student use by fall 2002, will house a total of approximately 550 students in a five-story, six-story and seven-story building.

The new housing, designed by KZF Inc., a Walnut Hills multidisciplinary architectural firm, and built by Frank Messer & Sons Construction Co. will consist of suite-style units. Amenities will include individual bedrooms as well as a living room and private bathroom per suite. Meeting space, storage space as well as state-of-the-art, high-speed computer connections are part of the amenity-filled design meant to appeal to today's students who have grown up in more spacious homes and within smaller families than their counterparts of years past.

The campus community is invited to find out more about the first residence halls to be built on UC's campus in more than 25 years. (Sander Hall was the last to be built back in 1971.) An indoor "groundbreaking" for the new Jefferson Residence Halls is set for noon, Wednesday, Jan. 31 in the first floor, north lounge of Daniels Hall. Speakers at the event will include UC President Dr. Joseph Steger; Mitchel Livingston, vice president of student affairs and human resources; Ron Kull, associate vice president and university architect; and Darren Tolliver, president of the Residence Hall Association. James Tucker, associate vice president for administrative services, will serve as master of ceremonies. On view during the event will be drawings of the new Jefferson complex.

The Jefferson Residence Halls project will cost approximately $39 million and is part of an overall plan calling for new housing at several campus sites: between the Alumni Center and the College of Business Administration garage, west of the YMCA on Calhoun St., and atop the recreational facility.

According to Tucker, the housing plan - when fully implemented - will better enable the university to attract and retain quality students. The plan contains needed strategies to modernize the current residence halls in addition to providing new campus facilities.