NEWS

Champlain College unveils residential campus

TIM JOHNSON
Valcour Hall, as seen from Maple Street.

Champlain College is poised to begin the new school year with a major amenity that has been lacking throughout its 136-year history: a residential campus.

The new complex, which features a grassy quad bounded by an outdoor amphitheater, is called the Res-Tri. The term is a bit misleading, because more than three residential structures figure into the completed design of this 4.7-acre parcel just east of the Edmunds School property and west of South Willard Street.

From Valcour Hall, the view to the northwest encompasses Butler Hall, left, and Lakeview Hall, right.

In fact, seven residence halls now occupy the the tract bounded on the south by Maple Street — three rehabbed Victorian houses, two new dorms that have been open for a few years, and two even newer dorms, just completed, that will be welcoming new residents this weekend. Classes begin Monday.

An aerial shot of the Res-Tri complex, facing northeast. Maple Street is at right.

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The three newest buildings have ceremonial entrances facing public throroughfares, but their main access points are on the other side, facing in, in the expectation that most student comings and goings will be off the city's streets. The buildings have two faces — brick facades facing out, in keeping with the traditional residential architecture of the Hill neighborhood, and contemporary, mixed facades facing in and overlooking the common space.

A new walkway extends from Main Street through the complex to Maple Street, and from there to Perry Hall, the admissions office and welcome center.

Tuesday morning, as Champlain officials led a quick tour, the complex was largely deserted, except for workers putting on finishing touches in advance of move-in day. The overall cost of the project — the three newest residence halls and the infrastructure — was about $30 million, said David Provost, vice president for finance and administration. Geothermal wells will provide heating and cooling to all three, as well as to an array of other college buildings in the area.

Looking south from the top of the amphitheater, Valcour Hall is straight ahead and Butler Hall is at right.

The first new residence hall on the property, Lakeview Hall, was completed in 2007. Together with Adirondack House, an adjacent carriage house remodeled for student housing, it accounts for about 100 beds. Next was Juniper Hall, the first of three other new dorms planned for the property, which opened in the fall of 2012 with 95 beds. As designed by CBT Architects, of Boston, construction of two other buildings of the same design as Juniper — Valcour and Butler halls — began in 2013. They add 180 beds. McDonald and Whiting, two old houses that front South Willard Street and that now open up to the interior quad — have been renovated and will accommodate 90 students between them.

Juniper, Valcour and Butler halls are named for islands in Lake Champlain.

Butler Hall’s patio has picnic tables. Adirondack House is in background.

Altogether, about 460 students will be occupying this complex. That's out of Champlain's undergraduate enrollment of about 2,000. The college continues to lease 272 beds in Spinner Place, in Winooski, as more plans for student housing unfold for off-campus properties the college has acquired from two fraternal organizations (the former Eagles Club, on St. Paul Street, and Ethan Allen Club, on College Street).

After Lakeview Hall was built, just east of the driveway to the Edmunds parking lot, the college intended to add four more residence halls to the parcel. That plan was scaled back to three after consultations with neighbors, and the resulting project came to be known as Res-Tri.

As construction winds down on Res-Tri, west of South Willard, it continues to the southeast for the college's new Center for Communication and Creative Media. This structure will adjoin the Hauke Family Center and Alumni Auditorium and is scheduled for completion a year from now.

Contact Tim Johnson at 660-1808 or tjohnson@burlingtonfreepress.com