Colleges and universities are constantly looking for new revenue streams. Plymouth State University in New Hampshire is taking the hospitality route: Its newest residence hall, the 96,000-sf Merrill Place with 345 beds, will convert to a 188-key hotel during summer months.
The new residence hall, which opened last August, includes a 4,300-sf conference center that has been consistently booked, to the point where Perkins + Will, the architect on this $33 million project, has had difficulty scheduling time to photograph the building, says Yanel de Angel, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, CPHC, an Associate Principal at the firm’s Boston office.
The seven-story Merrill Place’s main purpose is to provide campus housing for this public university, which over the past few years has seen a spike in its admissions. (It currently has just under 4,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. With the opening of Merrill Place, PSU can offer housing to 60% of its undergrads.)
By doubling as a hotel with a conference center, the new building fills a void for Plymouth, N.H., which de Angel points out had just one event facility with a capacity of 330 people, and only a handful of hotels. The college is situated near the Appalachian Trail, “and offers fantastic hiking, rock climbing, and cycling opportunities.”
Merrill Place's 4,300-sf conference center can accommodate nearly 300 people for dinners and other events, and around 500 for lectures. Image: (c) Anton Grassl
Other colleges and universities have conference centers, of course. But what’s unique about Plymouth State’s, says de Angel, is that it’s being marketed as separate from the college, and has its own entrance at Merrill Place. The conference center can accommodate 276 seated attendees and 827 standing attendees. (The university’s 68,000-sf Field House, which opened in 2016, can also host conferences.)
There are two room sizes in the residence hall: 10 by 18 feet (including bathroom and corridor) and 11.6 by 18 feet. Some of the smaller student rooms are currently single-occupancy. The two twin beds in the double-occupancy bedrooms will be pushed together and rented as a single King bed for the hotel space. (The furniture supplier is DCI Furniture, based in Lisbon, N.H.) De Angel says the reception and concierge stations for the hotel have been built into the residence hall.
The student rooms will be rented as hotel rooms with King-sized beds. Image (c) Anton Grassl
Reception and concierge areas are already built into Merrill Place. Image: (c) Anton Grassl
Along with P+W, the Building Team on this project included Engelberth Construction (GC), Odeh (SE), Longchamps Electric (EE), RFS Engineering (MEP/FP), and Studio 2112 (landscape architect).
Due to recent administrative personnel changes, PSU has been slow to start marketing Merrill Place as a summer season hotel, although de Angel says the school has started putting together its advertising for that purpose, which will include offering rental of hotel rooms and the conference center as a package.
“Aligning program and aesthetics with a revenue-generating model is increasingly critical to today’s budget-conscious colleges and universities,” says de Angel. “The students here have embraced this whole idea about a residence hall with a hospitality layer. And we came away thinking that we might be able to take a little bit of risk with our designs in the future.”
Related Stories
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 12, 2014
AIA 2030 commitment: Five years on, are we any closer to net-zero?
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the American Institute of Architects’ effort to have architecture firms voluntarily pledge net-zero energy design for all their buildings by 2030.
| Sep 24, 2014
Must see: Semi-submerged hotel planned for Qatar's man-made island
Plans for a new hotel in the Persian Gulf are taking Dubai’s Palm Islands concept to a whole new level—underwater, that is.
| Sep 24, 2014
Architecture billings see continued strength, led by institutional sector
On the heels of recording its strongest pace of growth since 2007, there continues to be an increasing level of demand for design services signaled in the latest Architecture Billings Index.
| Sep 22, 2014
4 keys to effective post-occupancy evaluations
Perkins+Will's Janice Barnes covers the four steps that designers should take to create POEs that provide design direction and measure design effectiveness.
| Sep 22, 2014
Sound selections: 12 great choices for ceilings and acoustical walls
From metal mesh panels to concealed-suspension ceilings, here's our roundup of the latest acoustical ceiling and wall products.
| Sep 16, 2014
Ranked: Top hotel sector AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Tutor Perini, Gensler, and AECOM top BD+C's rankings of design and construction firms with the most revenue from hospitality sector projects, as reported in the 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Sep 15, 2014
Ranked: Top international AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Parsons Brinckerhoff, Gensler, and Jacobs top BD+C's rankings of U.S.-based design and construction firms with the most revenue from international projects, as reported in the 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Sep 15, 2014
Argentina reveals plans for Latin America’s tallest structure
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announces the winning design by MRA+A Álvarez | Bernabó | Sabatini for the capital's new miexed use tower.
