It will be for upperclassmen, and have apartment-type amenities.
Frederick, Md (KM) Hood College hopes to have more room for upperclassmen in the future. The school is building a new, 200-bed residence hall on campus near Coffman Chapel.
“We’re really excited because this is really the first big building since I’ve gotten there,” says Hood President Andrea Chapdelaine. “It’s kind of over by the hospital side of the campus so it will create a nice little quad over there.”
The new hall will have two-, three- and four-bed suites, common areas, a kitchen, multi-purpose rooms and seminar rooms. Along with that, the new facility will house study rooms and reading nooks, according to the College in a news release.
The timetable calls for the new residence hall to be ready for students by the fall of 2020.
President Chapdelaine says the new hall resulted from a loss of off-campus living quarters for upperclassmen. “When I arrived, we were actually subleasing apartments for our students across the street at Sunset Apartments. And they decided not to renew that lease. So we lost 140 beds at that point,” she says.
So the Hood College Board decided to build the new residence hall to get the upperclassmen to come back the campus to live. “At that point, our upper class students–we didn’t have enough housing on campus for them–so we needed to provide that opportunity,” she said. “So rather than them trying to find housing throughout Frederick, this was the board’s decision to try to get them back on campus.”
But, she says, Hood will still be a place for commuting students.
President Chapdelaine says the housing at this new residence hall is much different from a typical dorm room. “Our residence halls are very much the traditional residence halls: double hung corridors, and the shared bathrooms. By the time they’re juniors and seniors, they’re looking more for the apartment style. This place will be more like that. It’s more private suites so it will give that them more independent living,” she says.
The project received the approval of the Frederick Planning Commission in April.
The new residence hall will be on the site of the Marx Building, which will be demolished.
By Kevin McManus