Students moved into Saint Anselm College’s new, unnamed, $10 million dorm on August 15th, 2014.

The residence hall is the first new dorm built since Holy Cross Hall in 2001 and comes at a time when the college is experiencing a healthy growth in attendance, with 25 more freshmen in this year’s class than last year’s.

Located at the lower entrance to campus, near Bertrand and Brady Halls, the dorm is 47,000 square feet and has a mix of single, double and triple rooms with a total of 150 beds for students ranging from sophomores to seniors.

These 150 beds bring to an end the era of forced doubles and triples, and the campus now has two empty beds open for future students.

The dorm’s two wings house either males or females, and the central core features plenty of space for both sexes to converse, study and hang out.

Each wing is home to common areas, kitchens, study rooms and bathrooms for students to use. In addition, a basement lounge and game room provide a way for students to wind down at the end of the school day.

A unique feature of the three-story dorm’s design is the classroom space on the first floor. With two classrooms available to hold up to seventy students for lectures and other academic activities, the new dorm is the first on campus that exhibits a large focus on the Living Learning Commons (LLC) concept.

If one were to add all the space between classrooms, kitchens, study rooms and other common areas, they would find that it would equal that of the bedroom spaces.

Mackenzie Douglas ’15, and RA in the new dorm, says that the LLC is his favorite part of the new dorm, and that other students have been using the common areas to make the hall feel homier.

The popularity of the new hall was apparent even before it was completed.

While Douglas was able to get a room by being an RA, he shared that “I… work[ed] the housing lottery for the New Hall, and it was a very popular choice among sophomores and a few juniors.”

With overcrowding now being a non-issue for the college, the focus for future residential projects switches to current buildings on campus.

Sue Weintraub, Director of Residential Life & Education, said that there are ongoing discussions about whether or not to renovate or replace Croydon Court, but nothing specific is set in stone.

In addition, Weintraub said that many of the residence halls “could use renovating,” and depending on the timeframe of the work being done, students will either need to be housed in other halls or the work will need to be “managed when students are away (i.e. over the summer).”