$66M Dorm Complex Construction Set

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PRINCETON, NJ-Construction is set to start later this year for Butler College Dormitories, a multi-building complex totaling 113,000 sf on the Princeton University campus. The price tag for the complex, which will rise two, three and four stories, is $66 million. Butler is one of the university’s five two-year residential colleges.

The project is being designed through the combined efforts of the New York City-based Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Princeton University architect Jon Hlafter. The construction contract has been awarded to Turner Construction, with that company’s Somerset office handling the assignment.

“We’re pleased to be working with Princeton University once again,” says Tom Reilly, vice president and GM of Turner’s New Jersey office, which has done previous residence projects for the university. “The dormitories will be for the use and enjoyment of both students and faculty.”

Before actual construction starts, an existing five-building dorm complex built more than 40 years ago will be razed, a step that will begin this summer. Two other buildings on the site with greater historic value will be retained. Once construction starts, the new complex is slated for delivery in June 2009.

Located on the south end of the Ivy League school’s campus, the Butler College Dormitories complex will also include academic and social spaces, most of which will be located below grade, according to Hlafter.

The project has been a couple of years in the making. The approvals process was complicated by the fact that two sets of municipal OKs were required. The property sits on the border between Princeton Borough and Princeton Township, with 15,000 sf of the building space in the former and 98,000 sf in the latter.