UMD's newest dorm: Prince Frederick Hall

In the fall of 2014 a brand new residence hall, Prince Frederick Hall, will open on North Hill next to Caroline Hall. According to the Department of Resident Life, the dorm, similar to the other new dorm Oakland Hall in appearance, will face Van Munching Hall.

“We obviously are trying to improve and add to our housing,” said Residential Facilities Associate Director for Services Cindy Felice. “We looked at renovating Wicomico Hall, Caroline Hall, and Carroll Hall, but the footprint they’re on is too small to be able to gut them out and put the amenities in a residence hall that we want in the future.”

Like Oakland Hall, Prince Frederick Hall includes singles, doubles, and four-person semi-suites, although about half of the residents will live in doubles.

According to Felice, the new dorm will house 462 students. Two-thirds of these students will be in two living and learning programs, including a new honors program called ACES. One-third of the building not composed of these programs will be open to other undergraduate students. The Department of Resident Life does not know at this point whether the majority of these students will be underclassman or upper-classman, but they do know that it will be open over the breaks, which will benefit many students.

Construction for the project began in May 2012 and will continue until August 2014. The construction company is also using a LEED certification process, meaning that it is being built using “green” features, such as energy-efficient windows.

With such a large building being constructed in a location that affects many university students, the Department of Resident Life has tried to make the building process as non-intrusive as possible.

Felice said that, because they were working on excavating and building the foundation of the new building, the fall was the noisiest part of the construction process.

The department was the most concerned about Caroline Hall, said Felice, because of its close proximity to the construction site. With no air conditioning, students would have to open their windows, bringing unwanted dust into the building. For this reason, the rooms in Caroline Hall facing the site were left vacant.

Nonetheless, some students living on the other side of Caroline Hall have found that they are still disturbed and that the construction hours are not conducive to their schedules.

“[The construction] became a nuisance and prevented focusing and sleeping. It just made being in my room a negative experience,” said sophomore Heather Greenburg, who lived in Caroline Hall last semester.

However, Felice said they tried to give students as much information as possible ahead of time so they could make decisions and adjust their schedules accordingly. “You have to have enough time each day for construction, and it’s not possible for us to get everything done starting that late,” said Felice.

Felice added that Resident Life hopes that students will only have to live in Carroll Hall, Caroline Hall, and Wicomico Hall for one more year after this semester. Felice said the plan is to tear them down so that new buildings can go up.