Centre News

The 125-bed facility, comprised of six separate buildings offering
apartment and townhouse living for upperclassmen, is slated for
completion in August 2012. Click here for construction photos.

Construction is underway on the $15 million Residential
Commons project, funded by the A. Eugene Brockman
Charitable Trust.

The Residential Commons will occupy what was previously a
parking lot on Beatty Avenue, just south of West Walnut Street,
on the southwestern end of campus.

Students and faculty returning to Centre College this month for the start of the new academic year will find progress underway on the $15 million Residential Commons project funded by the A. Eugene Brockman Charitable Trust. The 125-bed facility, comprised of six separate buildings offering apartment and townhouse living for upperclassmen, is on schedule for completion in August 2012.

The A. Eugene Brockman Residential Commons will occupy what was previously a parking lot on Beatty Avenue, just south of West Walnut Street, in the heart of the southwestern end of campus. Designed by the St. Louis firm Hastings + Chivetta, which is responsible for designing the nearly $100 million in capital projects undertaken at Centre since 2005, the Brockman Residential Commons will blend seamlessly with the new and historic architecture of the nearly 200-year-old campus.

The project began in early July with construction of a new parking lot south of the Jones Visual Art Center, to assure parking for returning students. With this complete, in late July, work began on converting the field hockey field behind Greek housing on West Walnut Street into an additional parking lot. These two new lots will allow parking to be pushed to the campus periphery and increase green space near other residential areas. Once all is finished, the College will gain a total of 35 parking spaces.

The most significant part of the project, work that began in early August, has involved taking up the Beatty Avenue parking lot and preparing a level pad and footings for the Brockman Residential Commons.

As part of Centre’s on-going commitment to sustainable building practices, the Beatty Avenue parking lot surface was ground up and will be recycled as the surface for the new lot on the field hockey field. Before that lot is constructed, however, drilling for geothermal energy will take place, another effort in support of green building.

Similarly, the topsoil from the field hockey field will be used for a replacement multi-purpose field just several blocks away on approximately seven acres of property recently purchased by the College that was once occupied by a stockyards and a tobacco warehouse. That field is slated for completion in 2012. As part of the demolition of the stockyards and warehouse, much of the material was recycled, including 82 tons of metal.

The Brockman Residential Commons will be a welcome addition at Centre that will help accommodate the College’s plans for modest enrollment growth over the next several years. As part of careful strategic planning, Centre intends to become a campus of approximately 1,325 to 1,350 students by 2013. Recent success in recruiting this year’s incoming class of first-year students, along with the College’s high retention rates, have enabled progress toward this goal to exceed expectations. At the same time, the Brockman Residential Commons will allow Centre College to remain highly residential, with an average 97 percent of students living on campus.

Have comments, suggestions, or story ideas? E-mail elizabeth.trollinger@centre.edu with your feedback.

Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Forbes magazine ranks Centre 24th among all the nation's colleges and universities and has named Centre No. 1 among all institutions of higher education in the South for two years in a row. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, click here.