Seven months into the Kenilworth project, graduate students, non-traditional students and upperclassmen can apply for fall 2006 student housing on Farwell Avenue and Kenilworth Place beginning next week.

The project is expected to work well for graduate students in the Peck School of the Arts, offering affordable student housing for older students for the first time and in close proximity to their studios in the building next door.

“It will greatly enhance opportunity for graduate students because of space and quality of space,” said LeRoy Stoner, assistant dean for Facilities in the Peck School of Arts.

Apartment sizes will vary from one bedroom to three bedrooms with various designs that work around the building’s natural structure, including high ceilings in some rooms.

Students will have the option of provided furnishing for the dining area, living space and bedrooms, including double beds in the 179-unit, 372-bedroom complex.

The project was funded with $56 million in bonds and was the first private-public partnership to develop a piece of property in for the state of Wisconsin without any tax revenue from the state, Stoner said.

Without the bonds and with current university funding problems, Stoner said, “We never would have gotten it done.”

WEAS Development, the contractor, is completing the job on schedule.

“Apartments are now taking form and drywall (is) up and everything (is) going fast now,” said Scott Peak, university housing director. The painting and other interior work will begin this winter.

The plans for the building first had to be approved by the Board of Regents, then the building commission and financial planning. But the first time the project was presented to the building commission, it was shut down when the Water Tower Landmark Trust neighborhood association voiced strong concerns about a student housing development in the area.

After renegotiation, the neighborhood association accepted the project under the stipulation that it would be for older, more mature students starting with graduate and non-traditional students ages 22 and older, and then seniors and juniors.

Despite over crowding in Sandburg Hall, the administration must continue to comply with the stipulations in order for the project to go through.

Along with providing student housing in fall 2006, the Peck School of Arts will be able to strongly enhance its graduate school in the field of digital video. There will be a “black box” studio with flexible seating that can cater to different audience relationships.

“This raises the level of technology,” Stoner said.

The building will also lease out businesses on the lower level and have access to the Oak Leaf Bike Trail.

Rates for the apartments are currently unavailable, but information for the application process should be up on the student housing Web site within the week.

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