Campus Housing Finds Sustainable Edge

LOS ANGELES—Commercial builder Bernards has completed the 131-bed Harvey Mudd College Residence at Claremont Colleges. Bernards built the student housing project LEED-Silver certification standards, which the project is currently targeting. Students will arrive in the building on August 22.

“The vision for the student housing at Harvey Mudd was to create an inviting, stimulating and collaborative environment that promotes socialization with education,” Jocelyn Topolski, director of business development at Bernards, tells GlobeSt.com. “This project is designed to enrich the student lifestyle by combining opportunities for teamwork, social interaction and quiet study time in an environmentally responsible residence.”

Bernards has much experience in sustainable building, having completed more than 24 LEED certified projects and 40 LEED accredited professionals on their team. Among its sustainable features, the Harvey Mudd building has LED lighting and passive heating/cooling. To further increase efficiency during the building process, Bernards used virtual design and construction and building information modeling. This is one of several projects that Bernards has built for the school.

Despite all of the sustainable features, student campus housing is much less expensive than the multifamily projects on which Bernards works. “One of the main differences between building student housing and building commercial housing is that today's multifamily projects are geared toward the millennials who expect amenity rich complexes,” says Topolski. “The millennial working professionals seek an abundance of onsite activity spaces, such as You Tube video production studios, pools, and group film viewing areas. As a result, they are also much more expensive to build.”

That doesn't mean that the project wasn't without its challenges. Bernards notes that that most difficult challenge was working on an open and active campus. “Student housing projects have to be built while campus operations and student life are underway, with the highest regard toward safety,” says Topolski. “We don't have the luxury of closing down a site and just doing the construction. We have to respect ongoing campus life, which makes the construction that much more challenging.”