By Stephen Siegle, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (Chicago, Illinois)
With a huge inventory of 1960s and 1970s campus housing stock in need of renovation or replacement, increasing university enrollment, and a shortage of on-campus housing nationwide, there is tremendous pressure on universities across the country to meet the demand of today’s student. Total undergraduate enrollment in degree-granting post-secondary institutions was 17.5 million students in Fall 2013, an increase of 46 percent from 1990, when it was 12 million students. By 2024, total undergraduate enrollment is projected to increase to 19.6 million students.
Competition among educational institutions for the best and the brightest is intensifying the need for additional and updated housing. The demand for student residences is growing, but finding common ground between the wants, needs, and budgets of students and the needs of educational institutions is crucial to successful student housing of the future.