Artist's Rendering
	Typical Floor & Room Plan
	Site Plan

The new student housing, located adjacent to Eastman Lane and the existing Sylvan Housing complex, is the beginning of an expansion project for the student population of 5,000 students which will span over the next ten years. The plan for the new facility provides a bridge from the main campus to sites that will accommodate the future expansion.

The project is being designed to supply a total of 864 beds to meet urgent housing needs on campus. Clusters of five-story buildings will house approximately 216 students each. The buildings will be organized around quadrangles, encouraging the sense of community and collegiate competition amongst residential "houses". Located near outdoor spaces, the dorms will provide easy access to fields for intramural team usage, as well as passive use of the quadrangles for outdoor study and other leisure activities.

UMass currently has 41 residence halls, but none are designed in the apartment-style being used in the new complex. The last residence halls built at UMass Amherst, the Sylvan complex, includes Brown, Cashin and McNamara halls, and was completed in 1971. The oldest residence hall is Thatcher, built in 1935. Overall, UMass has on-campus living spaces for approximately 11,400 students

The design goal was to provide a community for students wanting to be on campus, but within a more autonomous living situation afforded by apartment style housing than by traditional dormitories. This is a completely new housing style for UMass Amherst and is its first new housing in 35 years; it will be constructed in a single phase and completed for Fall 2006 occupancy.

To follow the project's progress, check out the construction webcams being run by Housing Services.

A SPECIAL NOTE TO THE PUBLIC AND THE PRESS: Tours of the site can be arranged through the UMass Office of News & Information. In the interest of safety, and specifically as a matter of insurance liability, no member of the public --including members of the press --are allowed unauthorized and/or unescorted access to the construction site. Violators will be prosecuted for trespassing.

For current warnings and advisories, please go to our Construction News page.