PROVIDENCE – Brown University is in the early stages of adding another residence hall to its campus.
The Ivy League university announced Tuesday it is moving forward with plans to construct a two-building, 130,000-square-foot residence hall at 250 Brook St. that will house approximately 375 students starting in the fall of 2022. Currently, on the same street, Brown is building a new 162-bed health and wellness center and residence hall, slated to open next summer.
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The hall will be located on the southern end of Brown’s campus between Charlesfield and Power streets, Brown said, with building sizes of 80,000 square feet and 50,000 square feet. Brown said the proposed site for the new hall is currently occupied by a single-story commercial building and three residential buildings, two of which are used as rental units and the other is currently vacant. The commercial building, Brown said, has three retail stores and a Providence Police Department substation.
Brown is currently speaking with each of the tenants in the commercial building to help with relocation efforts when the leases expire. The leases in two of the three residential buildings run on a semester-by-semester basis with different tenants, Brown spokesman Brian E. Clark told PBN Tuesday, and those leases are set to expire at the end of this semester.
Brown said the new hall, which will be designed by New York-based Deborah Berke Partners, will feature suites with single rooms, community spaces and retail space “intended to meet the needs of third- and fourth-year students.” The hall will also house students looking to stay on campus beyond the university’s six-year residency requirement, Brown said. Other amenities proposed include 2,500 square feet of lower-level retail space, shared study space, and meeting and community spaces in the two buildings.
Brown Vice President for Campus Life Eric Estes said in a statement that students have “voiced the need” for housing that is “accessible and provides more community space and kitchens.”
“This project responds directly to those goals,” Estes said. He also noted that the project will assist in mitigating challenges that rose from having more and more students living away from the university, including increased rents on students and local residents, and graduate and medical students having to “move farther from campus to find affordable housing.”
The university said it will start a series of meetings with area stakeholders and residents offering details on the project. The input gathered during those discussions will “inform an amendment” to Brown’s master plan, and the university expects to submit the plan to the Providence City Plan Commission next month, Brown said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
Will there be anything left of Fox Point and College Hill by the time they have finished building? Is there ever a finish?
“Is there ever a finish?”; I hope not, Gayle! I get community concern. I really do. I lived on Sheldon Street for years. I currently own downtown. Being connected and able to afford to live in our neighborhoods is a fantastic thing. However, I do see the need in a vibrant economy and Brown certainly contributes a big hunk to our local scene here. I do believe we need to fight for the neighborhoods and strike a balance with the school at all times. I don’t think redeveloping a strip mall and parking lot along with a couple of underutilized properties as a big threat to that. Particularly when you think about how it could help ease some of the pressure of students looking for housing off campus. That pressure on rents is a much bigger threat for Fox Point and College Hill.