USC Village prepares to welcome 2,700 students home
USC Village and its eight new residential colleges will open its doors to about 2,700 undergraduate residents on Aug. 17. The $650 million project is currently undergoing final touches before its debut this fall.
The introduction of eight new residential colleges will increase university housing options and expand the development of the University’s residential education system. The Bohnett, Cale, Cowlings, Irani, Nemirovsky and Priam residential colleges will house continuing undergraduate students, while the McCarthy Honors College will be home to more than 500 freshmen for the 2017-18 school year.
“There are spaces for roughly 560 students [in each building] so [McCarthy Honors College] will be the largest freshmen residential college,” said Emily Sandoval, the director of the Office for Residential Education. “There are 18 RAs here. New North Residential College is really large but there are 16 RAs there. This is slightly larger than [New North].”
Professors Laura Baker, Ruth Chung, Broderick Leaks, John Pascarella, Neelesh Tiruviluamala and Trisha Tucker will serve as the six new residential faculty members to reside in USC Village. After a thorough selection process, the six faculty members are set to move in in early August. Residential college coordinators will live in the residential colleges and host dinners and different workshops for students.
“The residential college coordinators are full-time professionals,” Sandoval said. “They got their master’s [degrees] and they work with college students. There’s five of them, so they supervise the 50 RAs and work directly with six faculty [members].”
Most of the buildings will be suites or apartments, similar to current housing options available in the Parkside area. USC Village will also include a Harry Potter-inspired dining hall adjacent to McCarthy Honors College, featuring stained glass windows and banners of the 14 residential colleges.
The new dining hall will replace Café 84 and serve students at USC Village as well as West Residential College. With the opening of USC Village, existing undergraduate housing options such as the Troy complex will be repurposed to house graduate students.
USC Village was intentionally designed as a space for both students and the local community. A space in Building 1 (located on the corner of Hoover and 30th) will be open to the community to use, serving as a center for residents to gather. There will be a large welcome event for the public on Aug. 19.
USC Village will include approximately 115,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Some tenants at the newly built retail-residential complex include Target, Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, Bank of America, Trejo’s Tacos and Village Cobbler.
Target was the first retailer open to the public on July 23, and Trader Joe’s consequently opened on Aug. 4. Cava, a Mediterranean restaurant, was the first dining destination to open on Aug. 8.
An underground parking structure and the new Shrine Parking Structure will provide additional parking spaces for visitors, students and faculty.
Other notable highlights of USC Village include a 30-foot statue of Hecuba, a queen of Troy during the Trojan War, which will be mounted at the center of the main piazza; a 60-foot rectangular fountain and a new gym facility for all USC students.
Brittany Hoang, a rising sophomore majoring in business administration, was one of the few students to snag a four-person apartment in Building 6. Hoang appreciated USC Village’s convenient location and security measures.
“As a sophomore, I’m excited to be living in a community setting again, especially with the nicer renovations,” Hoang said. “I’m hoping this will make the commute easier for a lot of students, while providing them with the same feeling of safety like the dorms did on campus.”
Kelly Pascual, a sophomore majoring in business administration, will also be living in Building 6 and looks forward to the new additions.
“I expect that it’s going to be good because of how much time was spent reconstructing the Village and making sure that it will be the best for students,” Pascual said. “The new gym and the new Target will make things more convenient for the students.”
Kitty Guo and Terry Nguyen contributed to this report.