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University’s new Whitman College nearly ready

New complex, in collegiate Gothic style, to house 500 students

By Katie Wagner
Staff Writer
   Princeton University’s sixth residential college and largest single building project ever is gearing up for its first student occupants this month.
   Whitman College will house 500 undergraduate and 10 graduate students in an approximately 255,000-square-foot structure with a traditional, collegiate gothic style constructed with mixtures of five different fieldstones and limestone, matching many of the university’s older dormitories.
   In addition to the college’s student living spaces, the $100 million enterprise includes studies, lounges, kitchenettes, laundry facilities, offices, classrooms, dining facilities, a 65-seat theater, a dance practice room, a dressing room and a common room. The college includes two newly landscaped courtyards that are each surrounded by the college’s building on three sides and a third large green space, also newly landscaped, located on the southeastern part of the college. Pathways, composed of bluestone mixtures, run through all three green spaces.
   The majority of the structure was completed by the end of May, but workers have remained busy this summer, putting the finishing touches on the building’s interior and completing the bulk of landscaping.
   ”What has been done this summer was to complete the project,” said Cass Cliatt, media relations manager for the university. “In some cases it has been redoubled efforts to complete the work that had to be done.
   ”This was a complex project in terms of all the masonry and stone work,” she added.
   Prior to the summer, the college was almost completely devoid of landscaping. Recently, 150 trees were planted on-site, bringing the college’s total number of trees to approximately 200 and most of the college’s bluestone walkways are in this month. Light fixtures weighing 85 pounds apiece have been added to the exterior of the building, as well.
   ”The external structure has been completed and the landscaping is almost finished,” Ms. Cliatt said. The inside of the structure is also nearing completion, with some of its offices already being used by university staff.
   The dean of Whitman College, Rebecca Graves-Bayazitoglu, said she and other college staff officially moved into their offices on July 1, with all furniture but chairs.
   ”We’re fully equipped and ready for business,” Ms. Graves-Bayazitoglu said, during an interview this week.
   Most of the dormitory rooms are also ready for occupancy, thanks to the installation of furniture, light fixtures, flooring and interior walls in the student rooms this summer.
   ”The interior of most of the student rooms is completed. They’re continuing to move furniture in. Most of the furniture is in the student rooms,” Ms. Cliatt said.
   She added, “The last piece of the building to be completed is the dining hall.”
   Although painting and some plastering work need to be done in the dining hall’s interior walls, progress has been made on the facility this summer.
   ”Back in May, the floor had a basic structure and the ceiling had not been completed,” Ms. Cliatt said.
   She added, the dining hall’s heavy ornate oak ceiling has been completed and that some woodwork has also been added to the room’s floor that continues along the walls, achieving a height of about eight feet.
   Ms. Cliatt said Wednesday some students are scheduled to move in as early as today.
   The dining hall and other parts of the building that have not yet been completed are scheduled to be ready for use by Sept. 8, the date the rest of the students arrive on campus.
   The small amount of landscaping work not yet done should be completed by the end of September.
   ”Whitman’s architecture is obviously gorgeous. What one doesn’t see from the outside is how cleverly it was designed to serve the needs of a four-year residential college,” Ms. Graves-Bayazitoglu said. “I’m thrilled with the architecture and the landscaping. Whitman has the advantages of being new construction, but when it is done it will look like it has been here for decades.”
   She added, “One feature of Whitman College that is particularly important to undergraduates is the fact that all the dorms are all connected. Students can walk to breakfast in their slippers from anywhere in the college, just as they can in their family homes.”
   The college is named for Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay and a Princeton alumnus. Ms. Whitman pledged a gift of $30 million towards construction of the college in 2002.
   The college was designed by 1980 Princeton graduate alumnus Demetri Porphyrios and his London-based firm, Porphyrios Associates. The Albany-based firm Einhorn, Yaffee Prescott was hired to serve as executive architects and engineers for the project.