New Pitt dorm cleared for construction

The city approved on Tuesdya a proposal to put a new 578-bed dorm in the center of Pitt’s… The city approved on Tuesday a proposal to put a new 578-bed dorm in the center of Pitt’s campus, and plans to begin construction are now under way.

The approval comes during an academic year in which the University had to house students in the local Wyndham Hotel and at another college, as well as in converted lounges. The University must weigh its decision to build amidst the threat of an impending state budget cut.

The approval — first from the Historic Review Commission and the Zoning Board of Adjustments and now from the city Planning Commission —gives Pitt the go-ahead to demolish the building at 121 University Place, near the intersection of University Place and Fifth Avenue. The building currently holds offices for The University Center for Social and Urban Research, as well as larger meeting spaces.

In its place will be a yet-to-be-named dorm that will hold retail space on its first level. The Student Health Center, currently in the Medical Arts Building, and the University Counseling Center, currently in the William Pitt Union, might move to the new dorm’s second floor, said Eli Shorak, associate vice chancellor for business at Pitt.

The remaining floors — 3 to 11 — will be residential, and the rooms will be mainly doubles, with triples on the end of the hallways.

Demolition of the current building on University Place will begin in June or July this summer, Shorak said. The construction of the new dorm will begin in July or August, pending the additional approval from the city’s Public Works Department.

Shorak expects the construction of the building to take about two years, meaning the residence hall should open at the conclusion of the 2013 summer, in time to house incoming freshmen.

Making the decision to build

After Republican Gov. Tom Corbett proposed in his budget to cut the state’s higher education funding by half, Pennsylvania universities began discussing how they would cut back.

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg already told students their tuition will rise next year. Last week, Penn State University’s Board of Trustees voted to halt all new construction projects, pending the governor’s proposed cuts. Penn State, like Pitt, faces a potential halving of its appropriation.

In light of potential cuts, sophomore Ryan Bruno said that the University should reconsider building the new dorm.

“Considering current budget issues, maybe the University should hold off building the dorm, unless its ultimately cheaper than keeping some students housed in hotels and on other campuses,” he said.

Pitt receives some state money for construction projects but money for those projects comes separate from the funding that is meant to keep in-state tuition lower.

Vice Chancellor Shorak said student housing fees will pay for the construction of the new dorm and maintenance of the building.

Sophomore Diana Vose said that a new dorm is essential to accommodate the growing number of Pitt students.

“Building the new dorm is necessary for the amount of students Pitt is accepting every year,” she said.

Shorak, said that the Planning Commission confirmed that the new building is a part of Pitt’s master plan to accommodate more students and to better use the site where the old building is now.

The number of students living on campus has increased by more than 1,000 over the past 10 years with the expansion of Bouquet Gardens and the construction of Panther Hall and Pennsylvania Hall.

In the fall of 2012, there will be 7,400 beds on campus, including the expansion of Bouquet Gardens scheduled for completion this summer, Shorak said. That number represents about 44 percent of Pitt’s undergraduate, full-time student population.

The numbers will continue to increase in the fall of 2013 with the opening of the new 578-bed dorm. Forty-seven percent of full-time Pitt students will have access to on-campus housing.

Shorak said that the construction of the new dorm will be beneficial in the long run for the University.

“This [building] is critical for the future success of the University,” Shorak said.

With the new building will come an additional crosswalk and a signal at the corner of University Place and Fifth Avenue, decision that was made after a traffic study found that “the intersection is dangerous,” Shorak said.