Student community space with lounges, kitchens and study areas is central to the current concept designs for the George Washington University’s newest residence hall, planned to be located on the Foggy Bottom campus at 20th and H streets NW.
Staff began sharing the tentative interior concept designs last week with student leaders—including the Student Association, Residence Hall Association and residential life staff—to seek feedback before moving forward to the next stages of the project design and planning process.
Current concepts include loft-style student community spaces, which would connect two residential floors by a staircase. Initial design plans also include a ground-floor retail space.
The planned design is part of a broad effort to improve the GW housing experience and will add thousands of additional square feet of communal student space to the Foggy Bottom campus, which students and other university community members have emphasized as critical to enhancing the student experience.
The current plans call for the hall—two stories underground and eight above ground—to accommodate approximately 320 students in configurations of two, two-person rooms with a shared bathroom. After incorporating feedback from students into its planning process, the university will request official board approval to construct the project before finalizing design plans and seeking necessary regulatory approvals from the District, likely in spring 2019.
Initial planning targets GW opening the new residence hall in fall 2022.
In another effort to enhance the student experience, the university also is in the early stages of planning a comprehensive renovation of Thurston Hall, which primarily houses first-year undergraduate students.
