A major component of the College’s plan to increase the size of the student body is providing more living space through new residence halls on the eastern edge of campus.
This is an early conceptual diagram of how the project might look. The buildings would be in a two-block area bordered by Cattell, McCartney, and High streets, and Clinton Terrace. An expanded parking lot is being proposed south of Clinton Terrace.
These are preliminary sketches showing where buildings might be located, and do not reflect finished designs or approved plans.
The four proposed buildings would consist of mixed-use residential and commercial locations and would be built in several phases, with phase one completion targeted for fall 2018.
“This has been at the forefront of our planning for the last couple of months,” says President Alison Byerly. “Thinking about how the expansion of the student body could benefit both the College and the neighborhood by giving us the capacity to expand a little bit and really enliven that part of the neighborhood.”
Byerly held an open meeting with College Hill residents Aug. 16 to get community feedback. A similar meeting will be held on campus this fall.
The first floors would contain businesses that provide services to both the Lafayette and Easton communities, including an expanded bookstore, a College-run diner, and a walk-in health clinic. The top floors would be used for student housing of about 550 beds.
The project would call for about a dozen College-owned buildings to be taken down. Lafayette owns all the properties needed to complete the project.
As these plans would require the relocation of some student programs that occupy these houses, including Portlock, Hillel, and Newman, the administration would work with these groups to identify appropriate alternative locations with the goal of using this opportunity to address some of their unmet space needs.