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Miami plans to overhaul residence halls

Early plan would span 45 projects during 20 years.

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By Oriana Pawlyk, Contributing Writer Updated 11:20 PM Sunday, February 7, 2010

OXFORD — Miami University has begun work on a master plan to renovate campus housing.

University officials started discussing the longterm project that — in an early and aggressive plan — would span 45 projects during 20 years.

The project would touch every corner of campus, improving residence halls that are an average age of 61 years, according to the university.

A recent study reports 80 percent of students care about their campus housing experience and housing is an important aspect when making the choice to come to Miami.

Miami hired two architecture firms to assess 14 dorms on campus, rating them on a scale of 1 to 5 on how much work is needed, with a rating of 5 meaning it needs the most work.

Swing Hall, which was built in 1924 at Tallawanda and East Church streets, was rated as a 3.

Miami lags behind the national average of space per bed at 170 square feet per bed at 70 percent of Miami’s housing. The national average is 180 to 240 square feet, according to university architect Robert Keller.

“My roommate and I chose to live in Swing Hall for our sophomore year because of its location to campus and to Uptown,” said Swing Hall resident Owen Cook. “However, the size of our room is inconveniently smaller than other rooms in the building.”

Miami’s early plans call to renovate most halls and build one new one.

Keller said he would have recommendations for moving forward with the project at the next meeting of the Board of Trustees subcommittee on finance meeting in April.

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