With the three-year living requirement in effect, Resident and Life and Housing is set to offer the newly renovated townhouse apartments, located on South Campus across from 21 Beech St., as an option for students for the 2024-25 academic year.
For the last few years, the townhouses have been mostly empty, with the campus using them for quarantine housing during the uptick in cases last school year. At the start of the 2023-24 academic year, however, students noticed the construction fences going up in that parking lot.
Bob Beyer, the senior director of residence life and housing, said that with the three-year living requirement that was implemented for any incoming student beginning in the Fall 2023 semester, the renovation of the townhouses became important.
“We wanted to make sure we had attractive spaces for students as they transitioned from residence hall living to a more independent space in an apartment.”
The updated townhouse apartments will be open to two or three students, with one bedroom and two-bedroom apartments available. Both types of apartments will feature a private bathroom and kitchen as well as a living space.
“We’ve added air-conditioning, new flooring, new lighting, new furniture and a fresh coat of paint among other things,” Beyer said.
While most of the apartments were never truly closed, they were limited in who was there, especially during the quarantine era.
“We knew that some apartments were getting into rough shape, so we held a few ‘offline.’ We then used a lot of the apartments for quarantine and isolation spaces during the height of Covid,” Beyer said.
As Baldwin Wallace University no longer requires isolation for those infected with COVID-19, Beyer said it was a good time to open the housing back up in a fresh light.
“The renovation is currently on schedule where they would hand over the keys to BW in early August,” Beyer said. “BW would need time to go through and inspect, do a final clean and add furniture.”
The Berea Townhouse apartments will be open as a housing option to any student in their sophomore year or above.
This renovation marks the second dormitory update in the last few years, with North Hall finishing its renovations during the 2022 school year.
“We are always looking at how we can improve our halls and apartments,” Beyer said.
Basic application forms to choose the Berea Townhouses as a housing option are live on eRezLife. Roommate groups are required for the apartments and the deadline for specialty housing is Feb. 23, with housing selection taking place on March 13.
