Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus is adding a new residential hall for students that is expected to be located just north of the Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA.
ASU held two focus groups, one on Tuesday and another on Wednesday, to better inform students and to gather their opinions about the new housing. Students had the chance to ask questions pertaining to the upcoming residential hall and were able to give their input on whether it would be positive or negative.
Amairany Lopez, a junior studying exercise and wellness, attended one of the student focus groups and was able to give her input as well as gather more information.
“Overall, they want to focus on making downtown feel more like a campus and hope that making this new dorm will help that,” she said. “They mentioned demolition will start next week, I think. Fall 2021 would be the grand opening, and it’ll be upper division housing.”
ASU officials declined multiple requests to comment.
The Downtown campus has relied on Taylor Place, it’s only residential hall, for dorm life since its opening in 2008.
Shelby Meek, an assistant community coordinator at Taylor Place, said she is looking forward to the new housing. Meek has worked in residential life for four years, three as a community assistant during her time as an undergraduate student and one as an assistant community coordinator while she pursues her master’s degree.
“I think the major benefit of having another residential community on the Downtown campus is the opportunity for students to live on or near campus,” said Meek. “Working in housing, we found that there are higher rates of retention among students who live on campus.”
The Downtown campus has been growing steadily in recent years. Taylor Place was at full capacity in August, forcing some students to reside in nearby hotels until rooms opened up for them to move into. A new dorm building would make it possible for more students, potentially even graduate students, to live close to the campus.
“I do think that a new residence hall is necessary for the growing downtown community,” said Meek. “Our various colleges are all doing incredible work to expand their undergrad and graduate programs.”
Morgan Carden, a freshman studying sports journalism, was one of the few students who had to spend some time living in a hotel because there were no open beds. Carden was lucky to move in relatively quickly, but believes that another residential hall could have prevented this from happening.
“I think the new dorms will be beneficial because it will allow students to be around each other without the worry of what I had to go through,” said Carden. “I hope that the new dorms will have the same environment and energy as Taylor Place, which is a great place to connect with other students.”
Contact the reporter at nahuerta@asu.edu.
