Architectural Design West

Design West is a regional design firm, with a special interest in student housing projects. The firm has designed 9,000 beds on university campuses. Senior Vice President Tony Wegener says…"We see ourselves as in the business of helping our university clients recruit and retain students, by designing appropriate Residence Halls. We think we understand what students want in their campus housing experience and we try to stay abreast of the trends." In 2012, CMU requested that Design West evaluate various potential housing sites for the next Residence Hall project on the CMU campus. Previously the firm had designed a full range of housing products at CMU, including Apartments, Suites and Semi-Suites totaling 1,064 beds. Working with Pat Doyle, the firm had incorporated variations within those housing products which enabled CMU to offer students a variety of Living Styles at a variety of Price Points. CMU and their architect appeared to be on the same wave-length. During final discussions regarding CMU's Unit Type preference, President Foster sent the following email to his architects: "Let's go with dorm rooms and something different than what we have done in the past" That message was received like a bombshell at Design West. Responses included: "He wants what?...We don't design Dormitories…We have never designed a Dormitory…We replace Dormitories." The disbelief continued for two weeks. Did President Foster really mean that he wanted a traditional Dormitory with congregate bathrooms? No-one wanted to ask. Finally President Foster removed all doubt, when he sent the following directive: "We are interested in considering an old style hall with group bathrooms. What I would like is for you to look at a variety of "Traditionalesque" residence halls, with group bathrooms." Designing a traditional dorm was an obvious paradigm shift for Design West, but the architects began gathering design data from various sources. They started with a review of the Anderson Strickler Market Study, thinking that the study certainly did not identify demand for Traditional Dorms. That started a series of embarrassing discoveries for Design West's architects. The Anderson Strickler Market Study did in fact identify that 40% of the students polled at CMU would find a Traditional Dorm either Preferred or Acceptable.