Addition of New Men's Dormitory Will Help Bring
College to Maximum Size
(June 15, 2001)
Construction is underway to complete a new men's
residence hall by autumn, 2001. The hall will provide living
space for 106 men, and includes a three-room suite with a
private bath for a resident priest or other non-student.
The additional space will come none too soon:
student enrollment will climb above 300 in September, the
largest in the College's 30-year history and a 26% increase
over the preceding 5 years.
The hall is designed as a two-story version
of St. Therese of Lisieux Hall, a women's residence for 64
built in 1999. It will have a similar gated-entry courtyard
with a fountain, and a balcony will grace the front of the
building. Inside will be three study rooms and four lounge
areas, two with fireplaces; the main lounge will be a spacious,
two-story room with beamed ceilings and a fireplace. To serve
more practical needs, a laundry room, an exercise room and
a kitchenette are also planned.
Anticipated project cost for the 23,900 square-foot
building is $3.74 million, including furniture, landscaping
and fees. Construction will include improved lighting for
the adjacent parts of the campus and enlargement of the parking
lot behind the nearby men's residence, Blessed Junipero Serra
Hall. The residence will be located just north of Blessed
Serra on the former site of the "300" modular dormitory.
R. Scott Boydston of Rasmussen & Associates
in Ventura is the chief architect for the building, while
the construction has been under oversight of HMH Contractors,
also of Ventura. Both the Rasmussen firm and HMH Contractors
have been responsible for most of the construction on campus
in recent years, including construction of St. Therese's Hall,
and Albertus Magnus Science Hall. The computer design company
ArchFX, also in Ventura, produced a computerized virtual tour
of the hall for video viewing purposes.
The College plans for a maximum student body
of approximately 350 students. That figure was chosen at the
founding of the College. "The founders thought that a small
community life would be most conducive to the kind of intellectual
life they wanted to establish here," said Peter DeLuca, III,
vice-president for finance and administration, himself a senior
tutor and a founder of the College. "They settled on that
number because that was the experience the St. John's Colleges
had come to in establishing a similar program, and because
it mirrored the size of many of the academies in medieval
Europe and even later at Oxford."
The new residence hall will enable the College
to admit 102 freshmen – six class sections of seventeen
students each – for the 2002-03 academic year. At the
rate of 102 freshmen admitted each year after 2002, the College
will reach its optimal size of 350 students by autumn 2006.
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