Construction on the new dorm, Marsh Hall, has been within budget and on schedule. According to Lief Lamoray, the project manager, the goal is to have the building certified by July 15 and ready to be moved into by August 21.
The building is co-owned by Salem State and The Massachusetts State College Building Authority. Funds and revenue will be derived from resident students living in the dorm and people paying to use the conference space in the building. The general cost of the construction is about $57 million.
The construction project is run and coordinated by six different types of mangers, which include a mechanical manger, senior project manager, and superintendent. There are about 160 workers on the site on any give day. The average workday is between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
There will be two elevators that go from the first to the top floor. There will also be a grand staircase that goes from the first to the top floor. The second floor houses an outdoor courtyard that will have tables and chairs set up.
Lamoray said it would take about seven more weeks to complete the interior of the building.
There will be four pods per floor. Each pod can house from 18 to 32 students. The pod style is meant to give the new dorm a better feeling of community. Most of the rooms will house two students, others three or more There will two or three bathrooms on every floor, meaning no undergrad room will have a bathroom. There will be six lounges to each floor, though some are designated for quiet studying only. Different parts of the building’s roof will be “green,” not because of energy efficency but because there will be plant life on top of them.
There will be an resident assistant for every pod, four academic mentors for the building itself and two graduate students that work with resident life and one resident director. The pods will be coed.
The rooms will have closet space, beds, dressers, desks, and chairs. The dressers can also fit in the closets if students wish to put them there. The rooms also feature a Valence heating and cooling system that has been used in Europe for 25 years. It is designed to conserve energy. Lamoray explained if the air conditioning is on and a student opens the window more than an inch, the AC will shut off automatically. There will also be recycling units at every intersection of the pods. The school hopes to achieve Gold certification by LEED, Leadership in Environmental Design, an accreditation process that designates buildings as “green.”
The cafeteria of the new building will have three different areas that can seat about 350 students each. The cafeteria will be open to the entire community, but the general public cannot access the residence halls through the cafeteria, ensuring residents’ safety.
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