UB Breaks Ground for Housing Complex, Fourth Housing Project in Long-Term Plan

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo broke ground this week for Gateway Village, the fourth residential project for university students to be built in recent years as part of a long-term plan to provide housing for students and improve their quality of life.

Gateway Village will be located on both sides of Flint Road at Augspurger Road near the old UB stadium on the North (Amherst) Campus. It will house a mix of 540 undergraduate, graduate and professional students in one-, two- and four-bedroom units. Being built at an estimated cost of $22 million, it is scheduled to open in August 2001.

The university plans to open the third project, South Lake Village, with a ceremony at the complex on Tuesday, Aug. 15. South Lake Village, built at a cost of which cost $22.9 million, features nine two-story buildings and seven three-story buildings with a capacity to house 552 students in studio, one-, two- and four-bedroom apartments.

Like those in South Lake Village, all units in Gateway Village will be fully furnished and will feature living areas; kitchens with all appliances, including dishwasher; telephone lines; ample parking, and hook-ups for cable television and campus computer-network connections.

"Gateway Village is another exciting step toward improving campus community life," said Dennis Black, UB vice president for student affairs. "It will bring to campus 540 new residents and will bring to the residents individualized, on-campus living that is different than we've been able to offer in the past."

Those differences, Black said, include a location that is more convenient to the campus' academic spine and a design that uses interior corridors to allow residents to move from apartment to apartment and from apartment to common areas without having to go outside the buildings.

The complex will include a common room in every building and on every floor, a popular feature in traditional, dormitory-style residence halls. Other apartment-style complexes on campus feature community areas that are located in free-standing buildings.

The Gateway Village project,is being sponsored by the University at Buffalo Foundation,

Inc., and the UB Alumni Association. It was designed by Lauer-Manguso & Associates architects

and will be constructed by the ADF Construction Corp. of Amherst.

The public land on the North Campus was made available for private housing development due to a clause in state education law that allows SUNY trustees to work with alumni associations to develop housing on SUNY campuses.

The first phase of UB's housing plan was completed in Fall 1998 with the opening of Flickinger Court, townhouses for 230 graduate and professional students located at Chestnut Ridge and Sweet Home roads adjacent to the North Campus.

Phase two, Hadley Village, opened last August.

UB's residential-housing plan also includes the renovation of Clement Hall -- maintaining the building as traditional, dormitory-style housing -- and the conversion of Goodyear Hall into apartment-style housing. Both buildings are located on the South (Main Street) Campus.

The university will solicit design proposals this summer and expects to complete both projects by 2004.

Also in the works is a plan to develop the area between The Commons, the University Bookstore, the Student Union and the Ellicott Complex on the North Campus -- dubbed the Parcel B-Lee Loop area. The site could include not only student housing, but also university-related and retail services as well, said Black.

The university will begin a master-planning process in September, holding public consultation and stakeholder meetings in an effort to determine exactly what type of development should be located at the site, he added.