ASU breaks ground on student facilities at Polytechnic campus

Students at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus will have a new place to live and dine this fall. The groundbreaking ceremony for a 318-bed freshman residence hall and 20,000 square-foot dining facility took place June 21 on the Polytechnic campus.

Both facilities, part of a public/private partnership between ASU and Inland American Communities, will open for the beginning of the Fall 2012 semester. Core Construction will be the construction manager on both projects.

“The addition of a new residence hall and dining facility at ASU Polytechnic will help us realize our vision for this campus as a place where students from Arizona and abroad can come to live and learn in a truly innovative environment,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow. “For first-year students, it is particularly important that they live in a place they can call ‘home,’ where they can be supported by the university and each other.”

“These are exciting times to be at ASU Polytechnic, as the campus grows to meet its mission of interdisciplinary science, technology and engineering education infused with an entrepreneurial focus," added Mitzi Montoya, vice provost and dean of the College of Technology and Innovation, the largest college located on the Polytechnic campus. "Our programs are learner-centered and project-based, and our academic facilities are among the best that ASU has to offer. Our facilities were designed specifically to support hands-on learning and discovery. Now our first-year students will have a place where they can live and learn together as a community.”

RSP Architects designed both the ASU Polytechnic student housing and dining projects.

The residence hall will be a three-story, 84,657 square-foot residence hall that will be located on the northeast corner of the future extended Backus and Texas Malls. The building will be arranged with two 150-bed, three-story residence wings – one each on the north and south edge of a landscaped central courtyard.

The two buildings will be linked together by a one-story common area that contains a lobby, information desk, administration offices, resident community kitchen, two multipurpose rooms, group study room and a “tinker” room which will function as a small engineering studio.

Each 150-bed resident wing will have three student activity lounges – one on each floor for pool, gaming and table tennis. In addition, each floor of each wing will have a laundry area and two quiet study rooms. 

Inland American Communities will fund the construction of the $13.4 million residence hall.

The ASU Polytechnic dining facility will be located on the north side of newly extended Texas Mall, immediately north of the Student Union, and will be a single-story facility designed to serve up to 1,200 students. The dining facility will consist of a 350-student dining room, a private dining area, open cooking servery and exterior seating on three sides that will offer connections to the existing campus.  In addition, the facility will have a small grocery store and café. 

The dining facility will be a LEED silver building and will be a critical social linkage between the freshman housing on the west and the student recreation center on the east.

ARAMARK will be the dining service provider.

The total cost for the dining facility is $10.1 million. No state dollars or tuition revenues are being used to fund the residence hall or dining facility.