Foregrounding Community in Student Housing

Coast Mountain College has embarked on an ambitious student housing plan to replace aging facilities with new state-of-the art residences. This project is more than simply providing housing for students, it is designed to bring together a diverse campus community and provide spaces on campus for a full home-away-from-home experience.

HDR was engaged by Coast Mountain College to act as the owner’s representative for this design-build project. We helped them identify efficiencies by rethinking the business case for two buildings and apartment-style suites, and combining the two facilities into a single building with shared amenities. Rather than self-contained suites, we worked with CMTN to redesign the facility into hotel-style units, increasing the shared spaces in the facility without increasing the overall building area or cost. The new building is designed to encourage students to spend time outside of their individual suites and in common areas that accommodate studying, cooking and conversing with other students in dispersed project rooms.

The semi-modular facility is designed to exceed the BC Wood First Act through use of light wood framed modular units, and a mass timber central atrium. The building was mandated to meet or exceed BC Energy Step Code 4, allowing the facility to be net-zero ready and reduce the overall campus energy and water usage following demolition of four obsolete buildings.