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Thursday, July 23, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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ALEX BODFISH/Daily

The new Munger Graduate Residences will open in mid-august. 

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Collegiate Press. 

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

