Rendition of the planned new building.
Graduate student leader Wendy Xiao, third from left, joins in the ceremonial shoveling with (to her right) Dean Cooley, Yale President Peter Salovey, and university Secretary and Vice-President Kimberly Goff-Crews.
A parking lot is turning into a six-story graduate student “dorm” with storefronts at downtown’s newest construction site, where officials broke ground Wednesday.
The groundbreaking took place at 272 Elm St. in the Broadway commercial district. Yale won zoning permission from the city to put the 51,777 square-foot, 73-foot-tall building there to house 82 students in 41 two-person apartments.
Surprisingly for a downtown groundbreaking event — but in keeping with the recent chill in town-gown relations — no city officials particpated in or attended the event. Asked why they weren’t included, Yale Vice-President For New Haven Affairs Lauren Zucker responded, “It’s not the ribbon-cutting. It’s just the groundbreaking.”
Officials said the building is expected to open in summer of 2018.
University officials consulted with graduate student leaders for three years on the project. Some students were looking for more on-campus options.
Student leader Elizabeth Mo, Dean Cooley, Xiao, and Salm.
An estimated 80 percent of the university’s 6,000-plus graduate and professional students live off-campus. But some students prefer on-campus living. Especially first-year students, many of whom come from afar, graduate school Dean Lynn Cooley said at the groundbreaking.
The new building will “foster a strong sense of community between our students, the Broadway district, and the New Haven community,” Cooley said.
Elizabeth Salm, president of the Graduate Student Assembly, said the new building will help grad students who want to live downtown but can’t afford the rents at towers like new Union (top monthly rent: $6,200). Dean Cooley said she doesn’t know yet what rent the university will charge at 272 Elm, but she definitely expects it to fall below that charged by Union-like luxury buildings.
Yale is working with developer Carter Winstanley, at left in photo, to build the new facility.
Unlike many other development projects, this one sparked little public criticism, although it encountered speed bumps in the zoning approval process. New urbanists saw it as an improved, denser, mixed-use alternative to a surface parking lot. The one note of criticism came from some local landlords who questioned whether the housing should be considered a “dorm” and thus be tax-exempt. (The retail floors will be taxed.) City officials responded that the building does fit the definition of a dorm.
Dean Cooty said the idea was to deliver a cross between an undergraduate dorm and a “residential hall” for older graduate and professional students who like to “bump into each other.” For instance, older students want to be able to cook on their own rather than join a meal plan, so the apartments will have kitchenettes. But they also want places to study together and mingle. So a student lounge will be located on the second floor above the entrance, according to Associate University Planner Steve Brown. A second lounge will be located by the first-floor entrance to an interior courtyard. Plans also call for a gym and a laundry room.
Another view.