New Dorm, South Hall, Now Housing Seniors

South Hall, the newest residence hall for GW Seniors at 2135 F Street, had a housewarming hosted by Campaign GW to allow GW students to tour the new dorm building. Construction for the building was initiated back in September of 2007 and finished this July. The building houses 474 seniors in apartment-style suites with single bedrooms. The building also contains classrooms and laboratory rooms for Schools Without Walls, a DC public high school that uses the “city as a classroom” to give students a more fulfilling education by integrating them with the GW community and DC as a whole.

South Hall was only one of many projects currently undertaken by Campaign GW. Another project is Square 54 on Pennsylvania Avenue, which the University is turning into a sort of urban town center, which will include, according to Campaign GW, “retail, residential, and office uses that would achieve shared benefits for the Community, the District, and the University.” This includes a proposed grocery store, shops, and office space. Tower cranes were installed over the summer, and work is now well underway on the below-ground parking garage. Square 54 is slated to be finished by Spring of 2011.

Construction is also continuing on Pelham Hall, a Mount Vernon Campus residence hall which was started back in Spring of 2008 and is expected to be ready for occupancy next fall. The structure’s skeleton is complete, according to an email sent out by Campaign GW, and work on the interior and exterior of the building is underway.

Pelham Hall is just one portion of the 2010 Mount Vernon Campus Plan, which is still in the early stages of development. GW is still figuring out what exactly the plan will include, but the goal is to expand and balance residence halls with academic buildings; rumor has it that there will also be a new blackbox theatre put in one of the new buildings.

Dylan Pyne, who is a co-coordinator for Campaign GW, says that “everything has gone according to plan.”

“Along with promoting the 2007 Foggy Bottom Campus Plan and gearing up for the 2010 Mount Vernon Campus Plan we have recently been helping out with Eco-Challenge, the Tree Watering Program and the Green Roof on 1957 & 1959 E Street,” said Pyne. “We are also always writing and brainstorming for our monthly email update.”

Pyne says that anyone interested in helping out with Campaign GW “can do so in a couple of ways. If they want a “no commitment” way to get involved they can just sign up for our monthly email update and receive information on development and sustainable initiatives on campus. If they want to get more hands-on they can come to one of our training sessions and be trained on the campus plans so they can go to tabling at a wide variety of events and educate and reach out to students, parents, alumni, faculty and staff. They can also volunteer to help garden the green roofs on E Street or help water the trees involved in our Tree Watering Program.”

For more information about Campaign GW and all of GW’s many construction projects, visit neighborhood.gwu.edu

-Alex Laska