Lord Aeck Sargent Architects Welcome Students Home

YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. — Architects for The Towers at Young Harris College (YHC) in Young Harris, Ga., have made strides to help their contemporary design become LEED-certified using proven green strategies and products while also incorporating a progressive housing concept.

Over the past five years, architecture and planning firm Lord Aeck Sargent (LAS) has worked with the college to design on-campus housing built to accommodate students at various years and to meet their specific needs and lifestyle.

A $12.5 million project, The Towers is the latest of three collaborations with LAS that is part of its progressive housing strategy. Opened last summer, the 226-bed residence hall serves the needs of the college’s first-year students.

“Progressive housing is the concept that student housing is intentionally designed in a targeted, varying manner so that it parallels a student’s level of maturity and years on campus,” said Jackson Kane, a student housing specialist at LAS, in a statement.

Because the housing development is for freshmen only, space is limited in the living units, and common spaces are maximized in order to encourage socialization and community building among students. The confined living spaces are meant to literally funnel students out into areas where they can become more social.

Likewise, Enotah Hall, which opened at YHC in fall 2009, serves a special purpose to accommodate the needs of sophomores. The residence hall offers common areas focused on learning support, such as music practice rooms, study balconies and group meeting space, along with an exterior amphitheatre. However, living spaces are double-occupancy units with a common area, kitchenette and two bathrooms shared by four students.

The Village, designed for upperclassmen, has self-contained apartments that prep students for independent living.

“The level of needs between freshmen and upperclassmen are completely different,” said Stuart Miller, YHC assistant dean of students. “Freshmen are learning to do laundry, while upperclassmen are figuring out how to cook. That’s why The Towers is such a good transition spot for incoming freshmen who are in the beginning stages of learning to live independently.”

There are three pavilions – Tower A, Tower B and Tower C — that make up The Towers, totaling about 57,500 square feet. Tower A has four stories; in the middle is Tower B, which has three stories over a lobby/reception level and common areas for all students in the pavilions; and Tower C is three stories. Every floor in a pavilion is called a “pod,” a small community with 11 to 12 double-occupancy bedrooms, one unit for the resident assistant, a common living room and two community bathrooms. Pods are joined by glass-enclosed connectors so students can visit each other without having to go outside.

“Bedrooms are intentionally not overly large. They’re meant to push you out into beautiful living spaces to meet your peers,” Miller said. “The common rooms are very welcoming and conducive to hanging out, with breathtaking views. They each have two couches, plush chairs, meeting tables and 55-inch, Internet-ready flat-screen TVs, so you can hook up your Xbox or watch Netflix.”

In addition to trendy finishes, such as complementary color schemes and luxury vinyl planks that have a wood grain look, designers opted to make The Towers as eco-friendly as possible. Some of the green strategies and products incorporated into the design include: a hydronic heat pump HVAC system with energy recovery; extensive daylighting in the common spaces; significant use of recycled construction materials – regional or locally sourced construction materials such as Tennessee flagstone, wood, drywall, luxury vinyl tile flooring planks and the carpeting; energy-efficient lighting fixtures and lamping; motion sensors for lighting controls; water-efficient fixtures; and low-VOC finishes.

“We’ve received positive feedback about the design elements from our students,” Miller said. He added that some incoming freshmen were unfamiliar with the pod concept and opted to live in other campus housing. “Two weeks into the semester, they were trying to get into The Towers. The building is full, and it’s a good success story for us.”