Students can tour four model dorm rooms in North Hall starting in mid-February, said Brian Phillips, senior director of facilities management.
“We’ve just painted four mock-up bedrooms,” Phillips said. “We’re going to furnish them so that we can take a look at them and make sure we’re happy with all the finishes, the paint color, the carpet.”
The model dorm rooms allow students and facilities workers to visualize the dorms with carpeting and furniture in preparation for the fall 2015 school year. Students can schedule tours of the furnished dorm rooms beginning mid-February, wrote Heidi Herchelroath, manager of housing services, in an email.
North Hall was designed to foster community and force students to interact with each other, Phillips said. Most rooms are designed as doubles, but some rooms can house three students as opposed to two. Plans for the rest of the building are being finalized as well.
The two lounges will have a television that can sync to a computer for use as a study tool. There will also be an entire wall dedicated to tackable surfaces and whiteboards for students to use in each lounge.
“There’s a fourth floor terrace with a great view of the creek and a really nice courtyard space outside the building that I think will make for some nice outdoor areas,” Phillips said.
The cafeteria in North Hall will stay open late for all Biola members and serve breakfast all day. There have been no decisions made regarding a possible name change for North Hall.
Some students feel excited about the new residence addition to Biola’s campus, as well as the new cafeteria.
“I heard that it was going to be one of the cheapest dorms because it’s the farthest, and that they’re going to have a 24 hour cafeteria. Yeah, I would want to live there,” said Reina Nagai, freshman music education major.
Still, many students plan to live in the apartments next year. Junior communication disorders major Nicole Meaglia said she will live in the apartments, but if she were an underclassmen, she would consider living there.
“Yeah, because it’s new, it looks nice,” Meaglia said, “I want to see what it’s like.”
Freshman Cory Ng said his living decision for next year all depends on where his friends will live and said he will continue living in Sigma next year.
“I haven’t heard that much about it. I heard there’s supposed to be some kind of cafe in there but I’m happy where I am,” Ng said.
With construction currently ahead of schedule, North Hall will be completed in June, or possibly as early as May. The construction company Millie and Severson, Inc. and facilities management scheduled rainy days during construction in order to complete North Hall by the fall 2015 semester, Phillips said.
Rainy days caused the construction workers problems with the incomplete roofs. However, the roof is now in place, and future rain showers will no longer pose an issue for construction, Phillips said.
As of late, mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems of the building are complete and drywall is being placed.
“The project’s been going quite well,” Phillips said. “We’ve got through all the punch list items on the building.”
