Planned development of graduate student housing to include 9-acre Merwick site

The Georgetown Company of New York and the Maryland-based architectural firm Torti Gallas and Partners will design the project.

“We are trying to create a lively residential community that blends well with the existing neighborhood,” Vice President and Secretary Robert Durkee ’69 said. “So far, [the Georgetown Company of New York] has been willing to spend time listening to the community and our neighbors.”

After the application is reviewed and deemed complete, the project will first be presented to the Site Planning Review Advisory Board for input, and then those designs will be presented to the Princeton Regional Planning Board for final site approval.

Durkee said that the community is pleased with the initial site designs, particularly the way that they preserve the neighborhood’s attractive tree canopy and make improvements in local storm water management. In addition to its walking-distance proximity to campus, Durkee said that he thought that nearby YMCA and YWCA will offer key community resources for faculty and staff with families.

Construction on the currently unoccupied Merwick site — purchased by the University in 2010 from the Princeton Healthcare System when its facility was vacated — will likely begin this summer. In the fall of 2014, 128 new units, including apartments and two-story townhomes, are scheduled to open.

The current Stanworth Apartments will serve as temporary housing until the Hibben-Magie graduate student complex, south of Faculty Road near Lake Carnegie, is completed with renovations in the summer of 2014.

After graduate students relocate to the renovated Hibben-Magie apartments, 154 Stanworth units will be demolished. 198 new units will be erected by the summer of 2016. Most of the units will be one or two-bedroom apartments, although there are studio and three-bedroom options.

For graduate students currently in the Hibben-Magie apartments, housing contracts expire at the end of this May. Director of Housing and Real Estate Services Andrew Kane said the University is offering relocation and housing expense assistance for eligible current faculty and staff residents to make space at Stanworth for graduate students leaving the apartments.

Durkee said relocation of faculty from the Stanworth site to other residencies, including Merwick units, will be conducted on a case-by-case basis.

The Stanworth-Merwick sites will be developed with the University’s junior faculty in mind, particularly assistant professors.

“Assistant professors may come to the University as single individuals, with spouses or partners or with young families,” Kane said. “They are often interested in rental property that is near campus and affordable.”

While the Stanworth and Merwick residences will primarily target faculty and staff, 20 percent of all units will meet the Borough’s requirement for affordable housing and be publicly available to families. The University will hire external housing companies to manage the units.

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In addition to the Hibben-Magie renovation — which will begin this summer and increase housing units by over 70 percent to 392 and increase resident capacity from 512 to 715 — the University eventually plans to demolish and redevelop the Butler Tract near Harrison Street, which holds 1940s residences for graduate students. There are no finite plans yet for the Butler Tract, since its redevelopment is contingent upon the successful completion of the Hibben-Magie, Stanworth and Merwick projects.