Students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette moved into a new era of housing on campus Friday afternoon.
About 60 students moved into the first building of Legacy Park, an eight-building complex of apartments at the corner of Lewis Street and Girard Park Drive.
“ We are thrilled that the university is able to offer this style of housing to our students,” said Lisa Landry, director of UL Lafayette’s housing department. “The students are really excited about this and so are we. I think they are realizing that they’re a part of history. They are the first students to live in these apartments.”
Landry said more students will move in when the next building is ready in about three weeks. Other buildings are expected to be ready for occupation every three weeks after that.
The 468-bed co-ed facility was expected to be open at the start of this semester, but inclement weather delayed the opening date.
“ We had weather-related problems that presented setbacks, but the contractors worked really hard to get this done,” said Landry. “We had high standards in what we wanted and what the students wanted in the complex. We didn’t want to compromise that quality.”
Housing officials said buildings in the complex will be named for dormitories, like McCullough and Voorhies, which were imploded earlier this year to make room for Legacy Park. The building which opened Friday was McCullough.
The complex provides students with apartment-style housing and amenities such as high speed Internet access and cable modem connections in each room. It will feature suites with individual bedrooms joined by shared living and kitchen areas. Each unit includes washers and dryers and each bedroom has a private bathroom.
In addition, there will be 468 parking spaces and males and females will not be allowed to share apartments. Rental fees are expected to be between $350 and $500 per person, per semester, depending on which unit a student rents.