USM celebrates the opening of its 1st-ever Portland dorm
When the autumn semester begins on the finish of the month, many college students on the College of Southern Maine will probably be transferring right into a model new residence corridor.
USM celebrated on Tuesday the opening of the Portland Commons, the college’s first-ever dorm within the metropolis.
“Nice cities are recognized for nice universities, and no one right here can deny that Portland is a superb metropolis, a vacation spot for individuals from all around the world to work, to go to and to check,” USM President Jacqueline Edmondson mentioned Tuesday at a ribbon reducing ceremony on campus. “By establishing the primary residence corridor in Portland, the College of Southern Maine elevates the town’s stature as a university city.”
First-year college students will proceed to dwell on the Gorham campus. Some 580 upperclassmen, USM graduate and regulation college students, in addition to some college students from Southern Maine Neighborhood School, will dwell within the new Portland dorm.
The $74 million venture started greater than two years in the past. College of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy mentioned the 385-unit residence corridor and adjoining scholar middle ought to assist entice college students who need to be in “one of many hottest communities in New England.”
“I additionally suppose it’s a great contribution to the economic system of Portland itself,” Malloy mentioned in a latest interview with Maine Public. “We’ve got a variety of college students who’re taking on residences, or have been taking on residences, that now will be returned to the normal market.”
College officers additionally consider that the brand new residence corridor and campus middle contributes to the sensation of an actual faculty campus in Portland.
“Consider summertime in Maine. The lodges are full, they usually’re actually costly,” mentioned Trish Riley, chair of the college system’s board of trustees. “Consider the alternatives that this facility can have for summer season programming, and to assist the communities round right here with camps and every kind of revenue-generating actions.”
The residence corridor, which has views of the town and Casco Bay, is on monitor to be passive home licensed. College officers mentioned it’ll be the nation’s second largest passive home constructing at a college, and among the many 10 largest passive home buildings anyplace within the nation.
The brand new dorm is closely insulated and has air-tight joints and a steady thermal barrier,” mentioned Aaron Witham, USM’s director of sustainability. The studios, single, double and four-person residences all have vitality environment friendly home equipment and warmth pumps. All advised, the brand new dorm will use lower than half the vitality of a typical constructing.
“We estimate that the premium to construct to passive home certification prices us roughly $4 million for this venture, however this will probably be paid off in 15 years or much less from utility financial savings,” he mentioned. “Past that we are going to save $270,000 per yr on our vitality payments.”
College students will be capable to management the temperature inside their very own dorm rooms. The neighboring campus middle and eating corridor is on monitor to be LEED gold licensed, and it was partially constructed with cross-laminated timber.
The neighboring campus middle and eating corridor is on monitor to be LEED gold licensed, and it was partially constructed utilizing cross-laminated timber.
A brand new parking storage throughout the road can have 58 stage 2 electrical car plugs, making it the biggest charging hub in Maine, Witham mentioned.
Maine Public author Irwin Gratz contributed to this report.
This text seems via a media partnership with Maine Public.
