New Residence Hall To House Growing Number of Jaspers

The class of 2012 has yet to step on campus, but arrangements are well underway for its arrival. Later this year, Manhattan College will unveil its new residence hall, East Hill Tower II, which a growing number of Jaspers will call home.

Ground was broken on East Hill Tower II in December 2006, and the state-of-the-art residence hall is on schedule to be completed in July. The attractive structure that overlooks Van Cortlandt Park will eventually provide a safe home for some 550 students, which brings residential housing for East Hill and its twin, Horan Hall, to 1,270.

The construction of East Hill Tower II came in response to increased demand for on-campus housing, a trend that is consistent with college campuses across the United States. More Manhattan undergraduates are choosing to live on campus, and once the new hall is built, 75 percent will have the opportunity to become residents.

The new building's design nearly mirrors that of Horan Hall. Even though East Hill Tower II has one floor less than Horan Hall, both buildings will be the same height because the new residence hall is being built on higher ground. Due to its location on a higher piece of the campus' rock underpinning, the construction of East Hill Tower II has posed logistical challenges in recent months.

“The rock excavation has taken longer than anticipated, which has slowed the north portion of the building,” says Robert Mahan, Manhattan College's vice president for facilities management. “But we have accelerated work on the south portion, which will give us time flexibility to catch up on the north portion.”

As with any large construction project, unforeseen issues have attempted to slow the process. When areas of both hard and soft rock were found, the soft rock discovery required a redesign of some foundations, as well as the installation of more concrete and enforcing steel than first anticipated.

One issue that has yet to become an obstacle is the weather. A mild winter in 2006-07 proved beneficial and save some of the “float” or time cushion that is built into the schedule to be carried forward unused.

The exterior of the building was completed this past December, with interior work to continue through next summer. From December into the spring, workers will install the interior finishes, which are sensitive to temperature and humidity, meaning weather may still be a factor this winter, despite the finished exterior.

According to Mahan, the construction process must be completed by July in order to make time for furnishing the rooms and installing phone, cable and Internet lines prior to the students' arrival in late August.

“The furniture is probably the biggest thing,” Mahan says. “There is a lot of furniture for a building of that size. It takes time to load the furniture in, unpack and set it up; it's weeks and weeks of just installing furniture. A month is the minimum we want to have.”

With the building's structure completed and the rock excavation all but finished, any noise disturbances to the College community from the construction process should be in the past. However, those on campus will begin to notice an increased presence of trailers that transport the building's wall panels.

Progress of East Hill Tower's II's construction can be followed via live Web cam on the Manhattan College Web site at www.manhattan.edu .