The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) recently completed phase one of its on-campus housing development, opening Poplar Hall and Beacon Hall in August and welcoming students into modern residences with engaging spaces for living, studying, and socializing.
Poplar Hall offers suite-style housing for first-year students and provides 799 beds. Students may choose from two-person or four-person suites. On the first floor, students have access to a post office, a community kitchen, study rooms, and lounges. Poplar Hall also has a large courtyard that it shares with two adjacent residence halls, Magnolia Hall and Dogwood Hall. This provides an expansive outdoor green space for students to enjoy studying, recreation, or socializing. Anthony White, executive director of university housing, says that this is his favorite feature of Poplar Hall. “The students wasted no time activating this space. There are always students there throwing the football, lying out in the sun, or relaxing in the hammocks.”
Beacon Hall also offers suite-style housing for first-year students and provides 1,160 beds. Like Poplar Hall, it has two- and four-person suites and gives students access to a post office, a community kitchen, study rooms, and lounges on the first floor. What makes Beacon Hall different is its shape. It is divided into an East side and a West side, and this distinctive shape gives the hall two main entrances connected by a large courtyard, which White describes as a generous space with both covered and uncovered areas for students to enjoy the outdoors. And though the courtyard may rank as one of his favorite features, he also notes the unique style of Beacon’s hallways. “I like the exposed look that was chosen for hallway corridors versus the traditional drywall look. It gives the building a much more modern aesthetic.”
Through a public-private partnership with RISE Development, the halls were built in about 20 months. The halls help with the logistics of flowing into phase two of their campus housing development and the future of UTK’s on-campus housing inventory. “These halls allow us to accommodate our students in newer, more modern facilities. They also allow us to take some legacy halls offline and assess their state as we plan to decide our ideal capacity and next steps to get there. Once phase two is complete, we hope to be able to accommodate more upper-division students who want to continue living with us on campus as well.” —Camille Perlman
Spotlight is your chance to show off recent construction or renovation projects. Member institutions and architects are encouraged to share details about hall features, related programs, and how they connect to the overall housing mission, as well as photographs of the completed building. Share your success stories.