Building the future

NEWS

In 2005, plans for Innovation Village were drawn up to add a sense of tradition to FAU. It will feature two upperclassmen apartments, a football stadium and Greek housing. On Dec. 14, 2009, land north of the Breezeway was cleared for the future construction of Innovation Village. 

The on-campus football stadium plan includes 30,000 seats — 11,500 more than Lockhart Stadium — as well as luxury boxes, club seats, premium seats and a press box.  Innovation Village Apartments will house 1,200 new beds.

Director of Housing Jill Eckhardt said that rent rates for Innovation Village Apartments have yet to be determined, but students will pay between $4,475 and $5,075 per semester.

Residence at the Village Apartments will be restricted to upperclassmen.  “[Innovation Village Apartments] residents will need to be upper-class (juniors or seniors), graduate or professional students [so that] residence hall students can transition to independent living,” said Eckhardt.

Junior business major Andrew Gultz is happy with the new upperclassmen housing. “I like that because there are already two buildings dedicated to freshmen and sophomores. … I think [FAU’s housing] caters too much to freshmen and sophomores.”    

Innovation Village will feature amenities such as a gym, a computer lab, a pool and study rooms. The North Tower apartments will have four bedrooms and two bathrooms each, and the South Tower will be mostly two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments.  Each apartment will have a common area, a clothes washer, a clothes dryer and a kitchen.

When the $111 million apartment buildings are completed in August 2011, there will be no shops available to students living there. Shops will be built in the future, but there is no set date to begin their construction. 

“The current 1,200-bed housing project does not have any retail space built in; however, future [construction] phases include approximately 60,000 [gross square feet] of retail space. ... The specific types of retail spaces have not yet been determined; however, they will be designed around student support activities such as dry cleaners, restaurants, bike repairs, cafés, etcetera,” said Azita Dashtaki, assistant vice president of the Division of Facilities.

Construction of Innovation Village is set to start in April 2010 and end by August 2011.

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1 comments

Dean

Sun Feb 7 2010 01:24

FAU needs way more than 1200 dorms. We need AT LEAST 6000 total. Boca is expensive and traffic is crazy so we're in an ideal position to build a huge number of dorms on campus and fill them with people! We should build a new dorm every year or at least every two years. 6000, 8000, 10000... whatever the demand is and the campus can handle.

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