Graduate students move into Lakeside Graduate Housing after delays

The Lakeside Graduate Housing complex opened on June 1 after a yearlong delay.

The delays were due to the complexity of the project and contractual relationships, The Daily Princetonian reported in October 2014.

The complex was originally scheduled to be completed in July 2014, but delays pushed the scheduled completion to September, then to December and finally to June.

Lakeside is the University’s newest on-campus housing option, and features 329 units, including 74 townhouses and 255 apartments, and is now home to over 700 graduate students.

With its proximity to campus and to other graduate student housing, the Lakeside Graduate Housing seeks to cater to graduate students’ housing needs and to strengthen the graduate student community.

Andrew Kane, assistant vice president in the Office of the Vice President for University Services, said that Lakeside has now consolidated the student populations of the Butler and Stanworth apartments into one location on campus.

Kane explained that when planning for Lakeside began in 2005, the administration sought input from the graduate student body. Two students were appointed to the planning team that worked with architects and participated in the design process. They also looked into graduate student needs and preferences, Kane noted.

“We did a survey of common space amenities and what students wanted to have in the common spaces of the buildings, and we co-sponsored with the [Graduate Student Government] a survey of apartment unit types and rental costs,” Kane said.

According to the officialLakeside Housing website, Lakeside offers a variety of floor plan options, and caters to singles, partners, roommates and families. Unlike previous graduate student housing, each unit has a dishwasher, washer and dryer.

Within the complex, a 6,000 square-foot “commons” building features a fitness center, private study rooms, TV lounges for gatherings, a computer cluster with printers and a playroom for children. The center serves as a central gathering space and is open to all graduate students. Outdoor amenities include a large patio for grilling, basketball and volleyball courts, a community garden and several courtyards.

Graduate Student Government presidentAkshay Mehra GS, who currently lives in Lakeside, said that GSG has helped connect graduate students with the administration throughout the planning process.

“Our role in this whole situation — prior to Lakeside opening and now that Lakeside is open — is acting as a means for collecting information from graduate students and interfacing with the administration,” Mehra said.

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Kane also explained that the main drive was to improve the condition and quality of graduate student housing overall, as the existing Butler and Stanworth units were well past the end of their useful lives.

Many graduate student apartments that had been constructed under the G.I. Bill in the years following World War II had not been intended for long-term use, GSG Facilities and Transportation Chair Julia WittesGSnoted.

“They were built originally as temporary housing. In fact, I think they were built in such a way so that they could be moved — so they didn’t have foundations, and they weren’t insulated at all,” Wittes said.

Butler and Stanworth apartments were also located 25 to 30 minutes away from main campus, according to Mehra. Thus, proximity and integration with the rest of the University community proved an additional challenge. But with the opening of Lakeside — situated closer to central campus as well as the rest of the Graduate College community — students may find community-building easier than before, Wittes explained.

“Our Tiger Transit bus system has now been streamlined because graduate housing is all along Alexander Road,” Wittes said. “So instead of having a line that ran to Stanworth and a line that ran to Butler, we have all of graduate housing in one loop, which has now permitted us to have a weekend bus.”

The D-Bar, the graduate student bar located at the Graduate College, seems busier than before, both Mehra and Wittes said.

“It has not been doing so well in the past few years — and now I went to a packed D-Bar last Wednesday and was very excited about that,” Wittes said.

When it comes to issues like reserving the grill space or mailing electricity billing, there are “still some kinks to be worked out” in policies under the new management company, American Campus Communities, Emily Hulme GS, who lives in Lakeside, said. Overall, however, the Lakeside experience has been an upgrade for many Butler and Stanworth students, she added.

“I’m definitely happy with my unit,” Hulme said. “I think it will be good for future graduate students to see [these units] because they look like the standard. And to have a place where you can live this close to campus is something you can’t beat.”

The Lakeside complex stands on the former location of Hibben and Magie apartments, situated adjacent to Lake Carnegie and within walking distance of the Dinky train station.