Nashville City Mashup

Structure to put freshman students in heart of campus

Belmont University President Dr. Bob Fisher led a team of senior leaders and university partners in breaking ground today on a new 103,000 square foot residence hall in the center of campus. The as-yet-unnamed six-story building will provide housing for approximately 400 freshmen when it is completed next summer, prior to the start of the fall 2010 semester. In addition to offering more housing space, the new facility will provide a unique living-learning community lifestyle by putting all first-year students in the heart of campus.

?Belmont University continues to grow at a remarkable rate, with early enrollment numbers for the coming semester looking strong once again,? Fisher said. ?It?s important that Belmont remains student-centered, placing our students? needs first even as we experience significant enrollment increases. This new residence facility guarantees that Belmont will provide a unique and innovative space to welcome incoming classes into the heart of campus.?

With great demand for on campus housing, the new residence hall will help meet the university?s need for additional housing options for entering freshmen. Belmont's enrollment has increased by nearly 70 percent since 2000, with the fall 2008 enrollment topping 5,000 students. Full-time undergraduate enrollment has increased by more than 2,000 students in the past eight years, and Belmont expects its largest freshman class ever to enter in fall 2009. In addition, higher retention rates and a valued Residence Life program are leading to more upperclassmen wishing to remain in on campus housing.

Anticipated to cost $20 million, the new residence hall will be connected via an underground tunnel to Maple Hall, another freshman residence which opened last year. The building will continue Belmont?s initiatives toward environmental sustainability with water source heat pumps and air conditioning as well as green flooring and paint. Positioned behind Heron and Pembroke Halls and facing the university?s soccer field, the hall will also sport a tower stair case near the center of the building, providing an architectural nod to Belmont?s signature Bell Tower.

The structure will complete the university?s vision to house all first-time students in the center of Belmont?s 75-acre campus. The close proximity to one another and to all academic buildings will provide an ideal learning community for incoming freshman classes. In fact, the new structure will include classroom space on the bottom level to accommodate First Year Seminar courses.

Interim Provost Dr. Marcia McDonald added, ?Creating a community for our freshmen at the core of campus will enable us to enhance our living-learning experiences. We anticipate opportunities for extended student-faculty dialogues and exchanges around our innovative First Year Seminars, most of which will be taught in classrooms in these residence halls.?

Nashville-based architect Earl Swensson Associates?the same company that designed Belmont?s Curb Event Center and the Gordon E. Inman Center?will oversee building plans. R.C. Mathews will be the contractor on the year-long project.