After a decade, Penn State’s East Halls renovation project is done. Look inside the updated dorms

A major Penn State housing project recently wrapped up and is ready for students as they begin to arrive back on campus for the fall semester.

The East Halls Renovation Project, a decade in the making, is now complete and all dorms were officially back online on Monday. The project began in 2014 and Hastings, Snyder and Stone were the final three East residence halls to undergo renovations. The project broke ground in the spring of 2016 when a new residence hall, Earle Hall, was built.

East Halls will house 4,180 beds in 16 dorms with the completed renovations. The halls will have new and efficient building systems, climate-controlled rooms, updated meeting spaces, community kitchens, laundry rooms and shared semi-private bathrooms on each floor, according to a news article from the university.

The university renovated the existing buildings that were built in the 1960s. During a recent tour of the new Hastings, Conal Carr, executive director of capital and facilities planning for housing and food services at Penn State, said although the building is older, it has “great bones.” By renovating the buildings instead of tearing them down and building new ones, Carr said it is not only more sustainable but it also made more sense financially.

“Plumbing, electric, mechanical, everything is new,” Carr said. “But the bones are good. And this will be (here) another 50 years. We’ll have to replace the carpet, reupholster the furniture, but the bones are good. So think of how many generations have been here since the mid-’60s, and how many will be here in the next 50 years. ... That’s a great Penn State story.”

In total, 14 halls were renovated and two new halls were built. Carr declined to share the total cost of the project, but in 2022 the Penn State board of trustees approved a $95.3 million budget for Phase 2C of the project, which included renovating Hastings, Stone and Snyder halls.

A previous summary from DLA+ Architecture — one of several of Penn State’s partners, along with Clayco and Mackey Mitchell Architects — estimated a $450 million total cost.

The demand for this housing has been very high, Carr said.

“We really could almost fill it twice,” he said.

Days before students were set to start moving in, the Centre Daily Times got a tour of the newly renovated Hastings building. Take a look at some of the renovated spaces below.

Kitchen

Students in East Halls have access to fully equipped community kitchens with the renovations. A stove and oven are available for use, as well as a full-sized fridge. Cooking and eating utensils are available to share, too.

While students may use the kitchens to cook dinner or to heat something up on the stovetop, many students like to bake in them, Carr said. He said some friends who lived in South Halls, which has a kitchen, started a pancake breakfast every Sunday morning. By the end of the semester, there were 30-40 students there.

“It became this huge, great event,” Carr said. “It just happens naturally in this type of space.”

The stove even has a safety feature for those who have trouble remembering to turn it off when they’re done cooking. If they push a button on the wall, the stove stays on for two hours. It also has a Ansul system.

Common Spaces

There were little to no community meeting spaces incorporated into the building plans when East Halls were constructed in the 1960s. This has changed drastically with the renovations. Community areas including study lounges, collaboration spaces, music and presentation practice rooms, gaming spaces and meeting/social areas are included throughout the halls.

The halls have several areas where students can gather for group and individual study sessions. There are places to sit and a screen where students can either watch TV or work on a project together while sharing their devices on the screen. Cables aren’t required for the screens; everything can be projected to the screen over the Wi-Fi.

Quiet Room

In addition to meeting spaces, some residence halls also have “quiet rooms” that can be used for meditation, prayer, yoga, reading, studying or just to have some quiet time.

For those in the Islamic faith who pray several times a day, Carr said, this room gives them a space to do that. In Hastings, there are bathrooms next to the quiet room on the ground floor.

“For some students in the faith, there’s foot washing as part of the faith. So we actually have a foot washing station here, which they can do and come over here,” Carr said.

Dorms

Of course, the main aspect of the residence halls is that students live there. Gone are the days of carrying a physical key to lock and unlock your dorm room. Everything in the South and Easts halls are digital now and students can use their phone — or their smart watch — to unlock their doors.

In the event that their phone dies, it can still work to unlock their door even hours later, Carr said. If it’s been dead for longer than a few hours, the commons desk can help unlock the door.

Every room is equipped with furniture, including a microfridge, and everything is able to be moved. For example, the wardrobe is on wheels and the space inside can be adjusted to fit each student’s needs. Living arrangements throughout East Halls are double, triple and supplemental, depending on the hall.

The mattress provided has a “firm” side and a “fluff” side, depending on the student’s preference.

The buildings are air conditioned and each room has climate control.

Bathrooms

While students may look forward to having a roommate and having that “college experience,” most aren’t looking forward to sharing a bathroom once they’re on campus. But the bathrooms have now been designed as a single-use bathroom, something they started doing in 2009.

Sinks and mirrors are located outside the bathroom, so if a student only needs to brush their teeth, for example, they’re not using up the entire bathroom. The sinks outside are deep and can also be used to wash small dishes.

Inside the bathroom is a shower, toilet and sink. For roughly every six or seven students, there is one bathroom, Carr said.

Laundry facilities

A laundry room is available for students; for every 30 students, there’s one washer and dryer. There is a fee for students to use the machines but they accept LionCash — no quarters are needed.

Previously the laundry rooms were on every other floor, so students could have to go up or down a floor or more, depending on what machines were available. Now they’re all on the ground floor. There’s even an app that students can use to see what machines are open. It can also send a mobile alert once their machine is done.

“There’s never enough on Sunday night, there’s plenty on Tuesday morning,” Carr said.

What’s next?

Pollock Halls will be renovated next, beginning in May 2025. It’s anticipated to be a five-year project. The project, recently submitted to the State College borough, includes completely renovating the nine existing residence halls. It will include removing hazardous materials, ADA accessibility upgrades, replaced building systems and updated building aesthetics. After that is complete, the university will look at renovating West Halls.

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