New student housing opens at HSC


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Over the past several months, construction projects such as the University Village have made significant changes to the University Park Campus — however, the Health Sciences Campus has also undergone a process of expansion. The Malcolm and Barbara Currie Residence Hall, a new student housing complex at the Health Sciences Campus, opened for graduate students at the end of July, according to USC News.

The hall has 178 residential units and features a fitness center, swimming pool and barbecue grills as well as an “academic success center” that provides computers, printers and two study rooms. The units, which can house around 450 residents total, were entirely booked by the end of May, according to Samantha Grande, the assistant general manager of Currie Hall.

“Currie Hall was built in order to have another housing option on campus,” Grande said. “We only had one other on-campus housing complex, so a lot of students were finding housing off campus. With enrollment growing, we wanted to accommodate that.”

Students feel that the new facility is an upgrade from the other housing complex in HSC, Seaver Residence Hall. Magdalena Borisov, a graduate student in the Keck School of Medicine of USC, said that students can access more services in Currie Hall than in Seaver, where she lived last year.

“Everybody [in Currie Hall] has their own departments. Everyone has their own washing machine and dryer and a kitchen,” Borisov said. “At Seaver, there were only three washing machines and dryers, so it’s definitely more convenient here. There’s more for what you pay.”

Currie Hall has experienced some minor difficulties with its infrastructure. On Aug. 4, days after it was finished, a faulty pipe flooded four apartments, according to Grande. The Hall is managed by American Campus Communities, so USC Facilities Management Services was unable to help with maintenance.

Despite these difficulties, Currie Hall remains a welcome addition to the Health Sciences Campus, where the last major construction project, other than a parking structure built in 2015, took place in 2009.

“It’s very convenient, [and] I like how it’s very cozy it makes me feel at home,” Borisov said. “There are a lot of areas for students to study if I want to study with my friends. There’s free printing, and during the night, there’s security.”

Currie Hall was named after USC trustee Malcolm Currie and his wife Barbara, who donated $10 million to Keck and the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. It is part of a $35 million project aimed to renovate HSC, according to USC Transportation. The project plan includes four main objectives: opening a 200-bed hotel known as Hyatt House for students, remodeling the Norris Health Care Consultation Center, constructing a clinical building dedicated to cancer treatment and beautifying the streets in and around HSC.