The GCC Foundation cut the ribbon on new communal style housing at College Village on Batavia Stafford Townline road on Tuesday afternoon.
After a year of gutting the eight, two bedroom apartments at Birch Hall, the new converted Birch Hall will house a total of 28 students, 14 on each floor.
“It is communal style living with single rooms around the perimeter of the building,” says John Sisson, Director of College Village at GCC.
“The interior has full bathrooms, kitchen space, social space, laundry facilities and we will be adding 70 inch screens so the students can do some living learning work with faculty.”
Sisson says they will also offer cohort type living in one area for students who have common majors
There are three phases to the project. Whitney East is the contractor for the project.
The converting of Birch Hall and the renovation of the individual units at Pine Hall are part of the first phase. The second phase of the project will include three other halls that were built in the mid to late 80s . The five buildings are part of a $5.2million dollar project. Phase three will include two other buildings from the late 80’s.
“We are looking to bring the original 7 buildings up to standard with modern amenities. Originally, there was no gas on the property and all the buildings were electric, that can get very expensive, also no sprinkler systems. Our foundation has been very safety conscious, we’ve added new fire alarm systems and sprinkler systems in all of the buildings.”
The Foundation added two new buildings to College Village, one in 2007 and another in 2014.
Students can apply to the Residence Life folks who will then work with College Student Services to match up students to their living arrangements
