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Thursday, July 23, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS
ALEX BODFISH/Daily
The new Munger Graduate Residences will open in mid-august.
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Munger graduate
housing to open on
Central Campus
Living space designed
to encourage
collaboration and a
balanced lifestyle
By EMMA KERR
Summer Editor in Chief
If you’re a graduate stu-
dent living in the new Munger
Graduate Residences, climbing
through dorm windows at night
to get a strictly prohibited roof-
top view will not be part of your
residential life experience.
Munger Graduate Residences
will open its doors to nearly
630 single graduate students in
mid-August. The $155 million
project includes a rooftop patio
and running track overlook-
ing Michigan Stadium, in addi-
tion to entire floors dedicated
to common spaces and study
spaces for residents. The proj-
ect ultimately cost $30 million
under the original budget of
$185 million.
Each individual unit is part
of a six or seven-bedroom
suite, and though each resident
has his or her own bathroom,
kitchen and study spaces in the
suite are shared. Suites were
designed with interdisciplin-
ary collaboration in mind, Amir
Baghdadchi,
the
University
Housing’s Assistant Director of
Communications, said during a
tour Friday.
Graduate
student
Ashley
Adams, a Planning Fellow who
will be living at Munger Gradu-
ate Residences in the fall, said
she and the other Planning Fel-
lows will organize programs
and provide resources to resi-
dents.
“The building is beautiful,
but the mission of the program
was really a driver for me. I was
a Planning Fellow, and so our
student input was really valu-
able and even residents get to
decide how they will want to
use the space and it can adjust
to their needs,” Adams said.
Students of at least four
different areas of study are
assigned to suites. Spaces like
the theater-style multimedia
room are all designed to cre-
ate a unique graduate experi-
ence and encourage students to
explore areas of study outside of
their own, Baghdadchi said.
“Housing is a way to bring
people together who do differ-
ent kinds of things,” he said.
“When you live next to each
other, amazing things can hap-
pen.”
Living a balanced life was
also an idea planners kept in
mind when designing Munger
Graduate Residences. The lower
level includes a game room, the-
ater, and indoor bike rack. Stairs
are lined with grooves to make
moving bikes up and down from
the bike storage area easier.
“If you don’t make it easy to
live life with a bike, they won’t
do it. So this is a way to nudge
them toward that lifestyle,”
Baghdadchi said.
Baghdadchi also said Mung-
er is on track to achieve Gold
Leadership in Energy and Envi-
ronmental Design certification.
The building exceeds energy
efficiency code requirements by
30 percent.
The 8th floor of Munger
Graduate Residences — what
Badhdadchi called the heart of
the residence hall — is divided
into indoor and outdoor space
and includes a rooftop patio
garden and large windows that
can slide open during warmer
months. The top floor is also
equipped
with
an
exercise
room.
Most of the furniture has yet
to be moved into the residence
hall, though the project is said
to be on schedule for completion
in just over two weeks when
staff residence begin arriv-
ing. The project was designed
modularly for maximization of
efficiency and was approved by
the Board of Regents in Septem-
ber 2013 after the University
received a $110 million donation
from University alum Charles
Munger, vice chairman of Berk-
shire Hathaway.
See MUNGER, Page 9