Images: Georgia Tech's first new residence hall in decades has arrived

With fall semester around the corner, the first new on-campus dorms at Georgia Tech in half a century are welcoming students along Northside Drive.

The two-building, eight-story project—now christened “The Bud and Val Peterson Residence Hall” in honor of the former university president and his wife—has claimed former parking lots at 920 Curran St. NW.

The co-ed dorms’ design “leverages site topography for optimal solar access and reduced heat gain,” per architects Lord Aeck Sargent. Amenities include a 24-hour automated market, e-gaming, a fitness center, a variety of study rooms, and private shower stalls in communal bathrooms.

Georgia Tech’s first day of classes is Aug. 24. University officials have previously said no other new dorms have been built on campus in 50 years.

Completed, western facades of the Bud and Val Peterson Residence Hall buildings, as seen this week. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

One focus of the complex is community engagement, per designers. Georgia Tech/Housing and Residence Life

According to university officials, costs to live at the new co-ed West Campus residence hall are $3,953 per semester, with males and females divided by two wings on each floor.

Rooms include a dresser, desk, closet, and what’s described as an “extra-long mattress,” ostensibly for housing those extra-big brains.

The dorm project continues a building spree for Georgia Tech that includes the expanded Science Square district, a football stadium upgrade and expansion, and the high-rise Technology Square Phase 3 in Midtown, in addition to smaller projects. It also joins a multitude of new off-campus housing in highly amenitized buildings that have sprouted across Midtown and downtown over the past decade.

As designed by Lord Aeck Sargent and Mithun, the dorms mark the first new housing of any sort added on campus since 2005, when the 153-bed Tenth and Home complex opened along 10th Street to accommodate growing family-student and graduate enrollment.

Find more context and images in the gallery above.

Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta