New Vassar floor plans, dining, and rooming details released
Rooms will consist entirely of singles and doubles
The Tech toured New Vassar’s (NV) in-construction ground, mezzanine, and second floors Feb. 27. The residence will open in August.
As of the tour, the inner walls of those floors appear to be up, along with some piping and electrical wires.
According to floor plans and the tour, the ground floor of NV will contain a dining hall, an Athena cluster, vending machines, a yoga studio with no exercise equipment, a fitness room with exercise equipment, a game room, a makerspace, and public restrooms.
A rendering of the game room sent by Zachary Tsetsos, communications manager in housing and residential services, advertises that the “flex game room” will contain a pool table, ping-pong table, modular seating, meeting rooms, and lounge space. In addition, the ground floor will also contain a country kitchen with six cooking stations.
NV’s lobby will contain a welcome desk, security desk, mail room, art installation, and gathering space, according to a rendering sent by email to The Tech by Tsetsos.
None of the first floor rooms have been furnished as of Feb. 27. Team members are looking at other makerspaces on campus, including that of Next House, in order to determine what equipment to obtain.
The mezzanine floor sits halfway between the ground floor and second floor. Most of the space will be a large lounge with couches, TVs, and chairs. Two music rooms split off from the lounge. The mezzanine will be open to the ground floor lobby and separated by a pane of glass from the dorm’s laundry room on the second floor.
The second through fifth floors comprise the residential area of the dorm. There will be three GRA areas per floor, each with their own lounge, study, and kitchenette. Kitchenettes will have two large refrigerators, cabinets, sinks, a microwave, and a kitchen island. The studies, described in renderings as “p-set friendly,” will have a quiet space, white boards, and group seating.
NV will contain ten cooking pods, called “Tim’s Kitchens.” The pods will offer cooking classes and smoothie stations.
There will be two communal restrooms for each GRA area, each with four toilets, three showers, and three sinks. Residents will be free to keep them as mens’ and womens’ or to designate them as gender-neutral. There will also be two private full bathrooms for each floor.
Rooms at New Vassar will be entirely singles and doubles. Singles will be about 90 square feet and doubles 180. Rooms will be furnished with a desk, chair, dresser, short bookshelf, bed, and wardrobe for each person.
NV will also contain a grocery market, called “Tim’s Market.” Founders’ group member Tingyi Lu ’23 said at a NV info social March 1 that because the NV dining hall will serve only brunch and dinner, the store will serve as a “breakfast marketplace” similar to the pick-a-lunch program in Walker Memorial.
NV head of house Steven Hall ScD ’85 said during the info social March 1 that “certain rooms” will be “designated as first-year rooms” and students “won’t be able to squat those rooms.” Rooms reserved for first years are “completely spread out” throughout the dorm, Hall said.
Hall explained that NV expects a “40-30-20-10” split between first years, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, respectively.
Naomi Carton, the NV associate head of house, said during the info social that “first-year assignments” were “blocked off” first. As for the split between years, she said that the heads of house and founders’ group looked at Maseeh and Simmons historical housing data as a basis for their estimates. Carton explained that Maseeh had about 40% first years when it opened.
There will be two elevators at the east and west ends of the building. Three stairwells also run the entire vertical height of the building.
Outside the dorm, there will be an enclosed social courtyard with a patio and an overhang deck. Bike storage will run along the entire length of the north side of the building.
Lu said that the founder’s group was not able to influence the physical design of the building, as the group was not formed until Fall 2019. However, the founder’s group Interim Report says that “the founders’ group was able to provide input on fabric selections for furniture in the common space on the second floor of the residence hall.”
Lu said that the founder’s group consisted of three first years, two sophomores, and one junior who met every other week.
Another NV info social will be held at the Coffeehouse Lounge in the Student Center from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. March 6.