Many of us hear the word “dorm,” and a singular image comes to mind. Despite their different names, shapes, and locations, they all seem pretty much the same once you step inside. You walk through the main doors and after a few steps on old tile you can see the main desk. Then its just hallways, elevators, and dull colors till you get to a room with the same old desk, bed frame, and mattress that you feel like you should inspect for stains but also don’t want to see one and have to guess what it is from.
But thanks to the new Petersen Hall on campus you might have to rethink what on campus housing can mean. From the small dining grill in the lobby, to the staircases with glass sides, to the light-changing water fall in the study area, Petersen Hall is unlike any dorm you’ve seen.
In the typical dorm there might be a lounge or study space every now and then, but it’s on one end of the hall far from you and even when you go to use it there are already people in it that you don’t know (even though you have been living in close proximity to them for 3 months), so you awkwardly leave in hopes of finding an isolated study space for yourself. After multiple awkward, silent attempts of peaking into occupied rooms (anyone else have that moment where you don’t think anyone else is in there but once you go in you see someone in the corner that you couldn’t see from the door?), you finally find a space and you are triumphant! Alone. . . and feeling a little awkward but triumphant. . . right?
Perhaps this could all be avoided by a better dorm layout? That’s exactly what the University decided to look into when developing the new Petersen Hall dorm on the west side of campus. The dorm is specifically designed to improve student quality of life by having smaller populations per floor to help students on each floor bond easier.
Petersen Hall opened this fall with 501 beds, 10 floors, the Black and Gold Grill, and new floor plans to help serve students better. The University is working now on another dorm which will be completed in 2017. What do you think they should have in the 2017 dorm that we have not seen? 24 hour room service? Hot tubs on every floor? A movie theatre? Maybe if you speak up enough, it will get added….