Alumni Square: A Cornerstone of Georgetown University History and Student Life

Georgetown University, founded in 1789, boasts a rich history intertwined with its physical campus. Architects working on higher education campus projects are keenly aware of the ways in which spatial experience influences students’ learning and supports their needs inside and outside the classroom. These institutions continually plan for new infrastructure while also addressing maintenance and repair of aging campus buildings and systems. Among its many residential complexes, Alumni Square holds a significant place in the university's story, reflecting its evolution and commitment to student life.

The Origins of Alumni Square: Village B

Alumni Square, originally known as Village B, was completed in 1980. Located just outside the University's main gates, the complex comprises four buildings: Groves, Beh, McBride and McCahill, named after Georgetown alumni. This location places Alumni Square in close proximity to the heart of campus life.

A Shift in Housing Philosophy

The construction of Village B in 1980 represented a shift in Georgetown's housing philosophy. In contrast to the more traditional dormitory style of older residence halls, Village B offered apartment-style living. This change reflected a growing recognition of the evolving needs and preferences of students.

The Buildings of Alumni Square

Alumni Square comprises four buildings: Groves, Beh, McBride, and McCahill. Each building contributes to the overall character and functionality of the complex, providing housing for a significant number of students.

Residential Life at Alumni Square

Alumni Square offers students a unique residential experience. The apartment-style living fosters a sense of community and independence. The proximity to the main campus allows students to easily access academic resources, extracurricular activities, and social events.

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Modernization and Future Renovations

Recognizing the importance of providing quality on-campus housing, Georgetown University has undertaken several renovation projects in recent years. The renovation of a 360-bed residential complex set the standard for Georgetown University’s future housing renovations. These renovations aim to modernize living spaces, improve amenities, and address maintenance concerns.

StudioMB’s recent project for Georgetown University involved the complete exterior and interior renovation, in three phases, of 90 student residences adjacent to the university’s main gate. Renovations of the 360-bed residential complex organized in three rowhouse structures, originally built in 1984, happened over the summers of 2017 through 2019, and corrected longstanding maintenance concerns as well as modernizing each unit with new living and dining spaces and re-envisioned kitchens and baths. The project was chosen to set the university’s interior design standards for future housing renovations across campus and meets the university’s commitment to provide improved student beds on campus as a means to limit student rentals in the adjacent community. For the design standards, StudioMB was engaged to create a “living” template of materials, fixtures, and colors for application across campus residence halls for current and future improvements. As an undergraduate-focused institution with over 75% of students living on campus, the university sought to establish a simple but durable palette that can be applied for full building improvements or on a unit-by-unit basis. Since being finalized, the standards have been implemented at both modern and historical residence halls across campus.

Other Housing Options at Georgetown University

Housing at Georgetown University consists of 14 residence halls at the main campus and a law center campus. Housing on Georgetown's main campus is divided between "halls," usually more traditional dormitories, and "villages", usually less traditional apartment complexes. Housing is also available for on-campus graduate students at 55 H St.

Traditional Residence Halls

Copley Hall: One of the oldest dorms on Georgetown's campus, built in 1932. Named for Thomas Copley S.J., it is a neo-Gothic stone building located next to Healy Hall, across from the front gates and in front of similarly named Copley Lawn. Copley Hall features suite-style apartments on its five floors, with residency options for Georgetown's basketball team as well as rooms for physically disabled students. Copley Hall also contains a number of religious spaces, including St.
Darnall Hall: Provides housing for first-year students. It was built as a women-only dorm and opened in 1965. It is the only Georgetown dormitory named for a woman, Eleanor Darnall, who was the mother of Georgetown University founder John Carroll and an early supporter of Catholic education in America. There are six floors with double-occupancy rooms, two common bathrooms, and a common room with a kitchen.
Harbin Hall: Opened in 1965 and is a residence hall for first-year students. Its name comes from George F. Harbin, a professor at Georgetown. It underwent renovations in 2000. Each floor of Harbin Hall consists of three sections, each of which hold a set of eight rooms surrounding a single-sex bathroom. Most rooms house two students with a few triple rooms throughout the building. The majority of the floors are co-ed.
New South Hall: A first-year student dorm that opened in 1959. When New South was completed in September 1959, it was the southernmost building on campus. The four floors are co-ed and contain roughly one-hundred students, and each double room in New South contains a sink. Each floor has two resident assistants and a Chaplain-in-Residence. However, New South was recognized as the Georgetown Hall of the Year for the 2005-2006 academic year and recognized by The Voice as the Best Dorm to Live in 2006-2007.

Apartment Complexes

Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Hall: Named after the 28th Jesuit Superior General, is a suite-style dormitory completed 2016. It is located on a triangular plot of land between Henle Village, Reiss Science Building, and the Intercultural Center. It houses primarily sophomores and juniors.
Ida Ryan & Isaac Hawkins Hall: More commonly known as JesRes, not to be confused with Wolfington Hall, which houses Georgetown's Jesuit community. JesRes is an on-campus, five-floor complex for upperclass students, consisting of a number of housing options, ranging from 4 person semi-suite style rooms to a 9 person apartment.
LXR Hall: An off-campus dorm on 35th Street, between N St and Prospect St, and along with Nevils Hall and the Walsh academic building, makes up Georgetown's East Campus.
Nevils Hall: An upperclass dorm located next to LXR.
Village A: An upperclass apartment complex located on the south side of campus, between Lauinger Library and New South Hall, which features townhouse apartment buildings connected via a series of catwalks.
Village C: Opened in 1986 and has an East and West wing. The West wing is split into an X and Y wing. Every room in Village C has its own bathroom.
Henle Village: An on-campus apartment complex for upperclass students, consisting of red brick buildings of three or four floors. Henle Village has four or five-person apartment which contain kitchens, showers, and bathrooms in each apartment. Henle Village is known for its open spaces (which allow outdoor events and grilling).

Other Housing Options

Townhouses: While most townhouses inhabited by Georgetown students are not university-owned, a handful of them are.
Gewirz Student Center: A furnished apartment-style housing complex open to all law students primarily lived in by first-year and LLM law students, housing approximately 300 people.
Alban Towers: Georgetown purchased the historic Alban Towers on Massachusetts Avenue in 1973 to use as student housing.

Other Campus Projects

StudioMB’s work on higher-ed campuses includes academic, residential, student services, and student life projects at a variety of scales for public and private, urban and rural, as well as large and small institutions. Successful design teams craft impactful solutions that recognize the essential role of collaboration with campus leadership to understand and support an institution’s strategic goals and long-term mission.

Francis J. Heyden Observatory

Completed in 1844 shortly after Georgetown University’s founding in 1841, the Francis J. Heyden Observatory was quickly put to use to determine the official longitude of Washington, D.C. StudioMB’s feasibility study and needs assessment for the observatory resolves numerous design modifications and deferred maintenance issues while converting the small footprint of the historic structure into modern, accessible classrooms and offices. The design proposes full restoration of the Heyden Observatory to a contemporary and innovative teaching space that connects to the site’s long history as a place on the cutting edge of technology and science. Programmatic additions to the site will restore views to and from Observatory Hill while accommodating adjacent plans for improved athletic fields. Collectively, these efforts seek to bring activity to the precinct, creating a vibrant gathering space.

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Hoyas Locker Room

Continuing StudioMB’s relationship with Georgetown University and its athletics program, our design team was happy to devise a locker-room solution that caters to individual player needs identified in our outreach meetings. The Hoyas locker room refresh provides custom millwork to handsomely meet storage needs while integrating branding. Bathroom updates create a spa-like grooming area. Integrated signage, branding, lighting, and material selection, as well as custom lockers with multiple storage and convenience features, combine with upgraded AV and spa-like bathrooms to help meet the institutional goals of the program.

Fraternity House at Randolph Macon College

Located directly across from the college admissions office, the design features a broad front porch and expansive windows to create transparency to the interior. This fraternity house is a 16-bed, 4,100-square-foot structure located on a residential street across from the terminus of the main campus walk and the college’s admissions building. With such a prominent site, the design team made certain to enhance the architectural features that would most easily be viewed by residents and students alike, specifically the chapter room, main stair, and front porch. The fraternity project addresses many of Randolph Macon College’s institutional objectives, including security, student life concerns, and extensive campus-wide improvements being implemented adjacent to the building, as well as consideration of adjacent, non-college-affiliated properties.

Town-Gown Planning Issues for the College and Town of Grinnell

Following a broad investigation and analysis of town-gown planning issues for the college and town of Grinnell, during which StudioMB proposed a series of short and long-term recommendations to enhance the campus’ competitiveness and the area’s identity. Subsequent to the plan’s approval by the Board of Directors, StudioMB was tasked with creating a plan for a set of sites immediately adjacent to both the campus and downtown retail area, which envisions a place where the life of the college and the city come together. Designed to host a range of uses, the project brings academic, student residential, retail, administrative offices, and community spaces into a three-block area to boost downtown visitorship and provide 18-hour vibrancy. Extensive outreach to the campus and town community in over 20 community meetings generated tremendous support and propelled acquisition of numerous critical land parcels to begin the work.

Villa le Balze

Villa le Balze, a 26 room villa, and three acres of land in Fiesole, Italy, are donated by Marquesa Margaret Rockefeller de Larrain, the only surviving granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller. The donation is made in memory of her father, educator Charles A.

Key Moments in Georgetown University History

Hoya basketball games move to the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, a venue that can accommodate over 19,000, in contrast to McDonough Gym which seats 4,400. Edward B.
President Gerald Ford receives an honorary degree as part of the ceremonies to re-dedicate Old North on November 2.
Black Movements Dance Theater is Established.
Georgetown defeats Houston in the NCAA basketball championship by a score of 84-75 on April 2. Utilizing his team’s remarkable depth, Coach John Thompson, Jr. is able to keep sending in fresh players and Houston is unable to counter them. Five Hoyas, including Patrick Ewing, score in double figures.
History Professor Michael Foley dies unexpectedly in June. He had taught at Georgetown since 1967.
“Sweater game” is played at Madison Square Garden, February 27. This game between the #1 ranked St. John’s and #2 Georgetown is highly anticipated. Before tip-off, Coach John Thompson opens his jacket and reveals a t-shirt with an identical pattern to the “lucky” sweater which St. John’s head coach, Lou Carnesca, always wears to games.
Patrick Ewing graduates from Georgetown College. National Player Of The Year in 1985 and Big East Defensive Player Of The Year, 1982-1985, he is the first choice in the NBA draft. The New York Knicks make him the highest paid rookie with a contract that will pay $16 million over five-eight years. John J.
Board of Directors votes in September to divest University holdings in companies with financial interests in South Africa.
First issue of Black Nemesis is published in December.
First issue of The New Press, a women's journal is published. Founded by a group of ten undergraduates, headed by senior Soraya L.
Coach John Thompson stages a protest over changes to the NCAA freshman eligibility rules. Walking off the court just before the Hoyas' home game against Boston College on January 14, he also refuses to coach the team's next game at Providence.
First issue of The Blackboard appears in the spring. Timothy S. Healy, S.J.
Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. becomes president.

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