Naperville's North Central College getting new dorm
A new dorm soon will join the landscape at North Central College in downtown Naperville.
The five-story dorm with a walkout basement will be the first new residence hall built on the private college's campus since 2009, and it's scheduled to open by August 2015.
North Central gained permission to build the dorm Tuesday when the city council approved a request for the building to come in 18 inches taller than a 50-foot height limit in effect in the area.
The dorm will be built south of Chicago Avenue behind Ward and Patterson halls and north of Merner Field House and Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium. Set down a hill from the existing dorms, the new building won't be highly visible from Chicago Avenue.
City council members didn't voice any concerns about the height of the 229-bed dorm as they unanimously approved it Tuesday night. College officials said the new structure will allow the school to offer more on-campus housing options for older students who often prefer to live in suites or apartment-style rooms.
"It's exciting to keep more of our student population on campus," Mike Hudson, assistant vice president for business operations, said in a news release. "This style of housing is designed to encourage students to take advantage of on-campus living opportunities."
The dorm will help accommodate housing lost when the 58-bed Student Village residence hall is demolished because it sits on part of the site of North Central's future $60 million science center. In addition to suite-style rooms, it will have common area lounges, central computer labs and laundry machines on each floor. Students surveyed by the college requested those features, said Sarah Avery, director of residence life.
Work on the new building is expected to begin soon, and crews already have begun relocating water and electric utilities that run through the site.