New living spaces at University of Richmond offer comfort, safety and sustainability as students return for academic year

More than 330 University of Richmond students returning to campus this fall will be living in two new facilities. Construction that has been going on all summer is nearly complete for Gateway Village and Westhampton Hall.

Gateway Village will house 176 juniors and seniors in 44 apartments within four buildings joined by a courtyard space. Each apartment has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen. Students can utilize a commons area, which provides a community living room, patio, and three study rooms. Each building has a porch on the second floor, and there are five covered pergolas throughout the courtyard space for students to enjoy.

Westhampton Hall will house 157 sophomores, juniors and seniors in 110 suite-style rooms. There are 16 different room types throughout the building ranging from single rooms with a hall bath to suites that share a bathroom. Each floor features a community space lounge. The first floor includes a multi-purpose room and study space and sitting areas at the end of the first three floors. The plants and flowers surrounding this new dorm are all native to Virginia. Westhampton Hall will also have a college fellow, a live-in faculty member who plans programs that connect the curricular and co-curricular experience.

Both Gateway Village and Westhampton Hall will house both men and women. The buildings have brick and limestone exteriors and are designed to score a LEED silver or gold certification. Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design is a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices. There are 100 possible base points distributed across six credit categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation in design. A silver rating requires 50 to 59 points, and a gold rating 60 to 79 points. The US Green Building Council will determine the level of certification for these buildings around this time next year.

To enhance the safety of students and their valuables on campus, these living spaces as well as three others on campus (Lora Robins Court, Dennis Hall and Freeman Hall) will all have keyless entry. Locks on rooms in these buildings require students to use their campus ID card and a unique four-digit PIN to gain entry.

The River Road entrance to the University of Richmond at UR Drive will reopen on Saturday, Aug. 16. Please use caution and expect delays due to continuing construction along the road and increased foot and vehicle traffic with students moving in. Classes begin Aug. 25 with students participating in a number of pre-orientation and orientation programs.