Marquette is preparing to say goodbye to the almost 50-year-old McCormick Hall, which will be torn down in 2018 as part of an estimated $96 million residence hall development plan.
The plan announced Monday in a university news brief. It was approved by the Board of Trustees and is set to begin in late 2016. It outlines the construction of two connected, coed residence halls that are slated to open for the 2018-’19 academic year.
Campus Architect Lora Strigens said it is a priority in the university’s Master Plan, which will outline campus construction for the coming years.
The residence halls will be located south of Wells Street and between 17th and 18th Streets and have around 375 beds, each with pod and suite-style living spaces. They will be connected through the ground floor by dining and campus community spaces.
The structure will be designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification standards, as part of Lovell’s plan to make campus more sustainable.
“It will focus on a sense of community,” Strigen said. “McCormick Hall’s design is just not where student housing is headed.”
Strigens said the Master Plan’s feasibility study on undergraduate housing, completed in April 2015, inspired layout plans for the upcoming construction.
The university requested for design teams to submit ideas, and it is currently searching for an architectural company to break ground later this year. The design of the new dorm will allow for multiple uses, including summer conferences and camps that are part of a campus-wide effort to use buildings more efficiently.
“Residence halls provides just one opportunity to do that,” Strigens said.
The construction’s funding will come from cash reserves, debt financing and funds from the university’s capital budget, according to the news brief. After the new halls are finished, Marquette will have nine open residence halls that house around 3,700 undergraduate students.
“We have to think and act differently and embrace new ways of living and learning for our community,” University President Michael Lovell said in the news brief.
The decision to remove McCormick comes after a October 2015 Master Plan workshop, where the majority of over 200 Marquette community attendees suggested that the building should be removed in the coming years.
