The team has just completed a seven-month programming effort and will continue to work closely with CSU Facilities Management and Housing & Dining Services to bring the project to life. Both Saunders and 4240 have deep experience within the residential and higher education sectors. Saunders has previous experience on CSU’s campus with the Lory Student Center renovation and the Student Recreation Center renovation, while 4240 has designed over 4,000 student beds and over 15 projects for CSU including key projects Laurel Village, Aggie Village, Durrell Center and the recently completed Warner College of Natural Resources Michael Smith Addition.
“Saunders couldn’t be more excited to continue our relationship with CSU,” said Tom Alford, Vice President of Saunders Construction. “The opportunity to be a part of this amazing project and help create a world-class student environment is tremendously gratifying.”
“We have an opportunity and responsibility to create a home for each student that chooses CSU as their academic institution,” said Lou Bieker, Principal at 4240 Architecture. “An opportunity to design a vibrant residential village that provides the comforts of home, the community support of a village, and the setting to inspire and promote wellbeing for all. Couple this with CSU, a client that cares deeply for the student experience and challenges the design team to deliver not just a place to rest your head, but a place to create life-long friendships and memories while living within the new Meridian Village.”
Housing & Dining Services is planning for the future through this new project — accommodating first-year and returning students. Phase I will include three residential buildings that will house approximately 1,100 students. Construction will also include off-site utility and road improvement work. Meridian Village holds several big-picture goals at the forefront of this redevelopment effort:
- Accommodate housing capacity needs for all first-year students who are required to live on-campus.
- Allow for greater accommodation of returning students, building on recent Housing & Dining initiatives like the redevelopment of Aggie Village.
- Accommodate additional dining capacity centered around students’ desired dining experience and fresh new concepts (planned for Phase II).
- Foster the CSU Principles of Community: inclusion, integrity, respect, service and social justice.
- Focus on furthering cross-disciplinary academic integration within the residential experience beyond program-specific opportunities.
- Design around intentional neighborhood creation to promote sustainability as well as occupant health and wellness.
“Housing & Dining Services has seen great success in building residence hall villages, in which groups of buildings are integrated with on-site amenities, strengthening connections between outdoor and indoor spaces and arranging buildings and massing to break down the large university feel into smaller and more community-centric patterns,” said Mari Strombom, Executive Director of Housing & Dining Service. “Academic Village was the first such residence at CSU, opening in 2008, followed by Laurel Village in 2014.”
The Saunders|4240 team were awarded the design-build contract following a design-build competition that included numerous collaborative design-build workshops with CSU Facilities, Housing & Dining Services, current students and its many user groups.
