Students relax in the new American River Courtyard residence hall, which opened Friday, Aug. 28.
“Move-In Day” will start at noon for Courtyard residents and 7:30 a.m. for students in the campus’s other five housing facilities.
The completion of American River Courtyard helps fulfill a key goal of University President Alexander Gonzalez’s Destination 2010 initiative: to make Sacramento State a destination university by creating a welcoming campus through new state-of-the-art campus life facilities. Gonzalez says the complex should help enliven campus life, with more students dining, studying and socializing there as well as attending movies, lectures and athletic events.
“Serving students is our top priority, and American River Courtyard has the features and amenities that today’s students want and need as they pursue their studies,” Gonzalez says. “The ARC will also change both the image and feel of our University as an unprecedented number of students will be living on campus.”
The four-story, 209,000-square-foot facility - years in the planning and under construction since late 2007 - is available to returning students and transfer, international and graduate students. It offers 606 beds in studio, two-bedroom, four-bedroom and five-bedroom suite configurations.
Each suite features large, light-friendly windows, a living room, a kitchenette with full-size refrigerator, a microwave and sink, in-suite bathrooms and bedroom configurations that offer students a quiet place to study. The complex also includes Internet connections and Wi-Fi access, a computer lab, multimedia meeting rooms, an entertainment lounge and a sandwich shop.
The $54 million project, financed without the use of University general funds, was completed on time and on budget.
Its planning included student surveys and focus groups, which found that students wanted a facility that would go beyond the traditional residence hall and afford them more of an independent lifestyle. The enclosed courtyard and smaller secondary courtyard were the result of international students’ desire for a more continental ambiance.
While the new hall’s per-student cost is competitive with other apartments in the region, campus housing officials stressed that it will offer students three amenities difficult to find off-campus: community, proximity and security.
“American River Courtyard is a state-of-the-art student housing complex that brings Sacramento State a step closer to becoming a destination campus, says Edward Jones, associate vice president, Campus Life, Student Affairs.
American River Courtyard joins the University’s other on-campus student residency buildings and boosts campus housing capacity by more than 50 percent, to about 1,700 students.
The new facility features an environmentally friendly atmosphere, including solar-heated water. Designed to exceed local energy efficiency requirements, the complex is expected to receive a LEED Silver rating. If approved, it will be the first LEED certification for a Sacramento State building.
The American River Courtyard project outperformed the energy code by “an outstanding 25 percent,” says Victor Takahashi, director of Facilities, Planning and Construction Services.