 The Mountaineer Hall construction site awaits completion. The project was implemented to ease the on-campus housing crunch. Photo by Zack Wilson | The Appalachian A possible solution involves modular construction, LEED certification, and 460 new beds in the future Mountaineer Residence Hall at the now-demolished site of the old Mountaineer Apartments on Bodenheimer Drive.
Mountaineer Hall is a $16.5 million project under construction by the Appalachian Student Housing Corporation and Clark Construction, which is based in Winston-Salem.
The partially modular construction project and residence hall is to be ready for student use by fall 2011.
The foundations, exterior, and common areas of the new hall will be built on site. Actual rooms will be built at a factory in Tennessee and transported to Appalachian and assembled over a period of six weeks this fall.
Mountaineer Hall is a project specifically designed to ease overcrowding and move closer to effectively housing the Board of Trustee’s target of 40 percent of the undergraduate population.
Appalachian currently has beds for 5,000 students, but the future goal is to house 6,000 undergraduates.
“This project gives us 460 beds as fast as we could get them,” Tom Kane, director of housing, said. “It’s the first modular project we are aware of at a state university in North Carolina.”
The 15-month project focuses on sustainability and is expected to be a certified green building under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard.
“We are going with super efficient heating and air units,” Kane said. “There will also be 40 solar panels on the roof for heating hot water.”
Steam energy will also help power the hall and boiler tanks will serve as a backup to the solar panels so students do not have to take cold showers on cloudy days.
In addition to energy efficiency, cost efficiency is a focus of the Mountaineer Hall construction project.
“The typical cost for a normal residence hall runs about $100,000 a bed to build,” Bob Feid, financial manager of student development, said. “The cost to build [Mountaineer Hall] is less than $35,000 per bed.”
Feid said the loan for the building was acquired with help from a Build for America Bond, an aspect of the Federal Stimulus Program, which will save Appalachian 35 percent of the total interest costs for the project.
Both the savings from the cheaper construction methods used and the interest saving bond are expected to be passed on to students in the end, Feid said.
Story: CHRIS CLARK, News Reporter
Photo: ZACK WILSON, Intern Photographer |
