Board Approves Plan For New Student Housing On West Campus
January 19, 2001
University Park, Pa. — Penn State took action today (Jan. 19) to meet the growing demand for on-campus family and graduate student housing.

The Board of Trustees approved final plans and gave authorization to obtain bids and award contracts for a complex of new housing on the West Campus that will include 75 four-bedroom apartments, 124 units of family housing and 379 parking spaces. This plan is a slight revision of the plan first approved by the Board last May.

"The architectural firm of Weber Murphy Fox has developed plans for a 21.5 acre complex on the western edge of West Campus," said Gary C. Schultz, senior vice president for finance and business/treasurer, in a presentation to the Board.

On the eastern side of the site will be four three-story buildings with four bedroom apartments capable of housing 300 students. At the western end will be family apartments, consisting of 68 one-bedroom, 45 two-bedroom and 11 three-bedroom units configured into flats and townhouses that will be arranged into neighborhood clusters to enhance the family and community setting.

A community center will link family and single-student complexes together. The center will have a lobby and lounge space with a fireplace, a coffee bar, mailroom, playroom, a study room, office and conference spaces, and a kitchen. Parking will be placed around the perimeter to further enhance the neighborhood atmosphere.

The buildings will be brick with standing seam metal roofs on a scale and arrangement to give the complex a feel of a residential neighborhood. A pedestrian walkway will connect the housing area to the West Campus academic buildings and core campus across Atherton Street to the east.

Contact: Christy Rambeau 814-865-7517 or cmr7@psu.edu by email