Housing needs come to the fore
By Rob Levin
A sky-high, ultra-competitive housing market, lack of affordable housing, and diminishing rentals are issues being felt across the US, and the communities around COA that have been traditional sources of student housing are no exception. While students here have long grappled with a lengthening tourist “shoulder season” making some rentals unavailable at the beginning of the school year, the rise of Airbnb and pandemic purchasing of second homes has led to record-low amounts of available housing at all.
With this new reality in mind, college officials have adjusted development priorities, paused the multi-stage project on the north end of campus (the Davis Center for Human Ecology was the first of several planned developments), and set their sights on increasing student housing options. Utilizing more than $8 million raised in the recent Broad Reach Capital Campaign for student residences, the school has made off-campus purchases in Bar Harbor, partnered with a community revitalization group in Mount Desert, and set plans in motion for a new residence hall on campus within the past year.
“By greatly increasing capacity on campus and adding space in town and on the island, we’ll have gone a long way toward assuring a productive and beneficial living and learning environment for every COA student,” says COA president Darron Collins ‘92. “While the college has long favored the idea of having many of our students live off campus and support local landlords, the profound changes to the rental market have caused us to rework how we approach housing, and led us to develop a program that better supports our students’ needs.”
Starting in earnest in the fall of 2021, OPAL architect Tim Lock and project manager John Gordon, who worked together with architect Susan Rodriguez on the recent Davis Center for Human Ecology, met with students, staff, trustees, and faculty to scope out the need for new housing. The result: a planned 12,000-square-foot residence hall with room for nearly 50 students, built to Passive House standards. The facility, slated to open in fall 2023, will include a fully outfitted, multi-stationed community kitchen, large common area with exposed mass-timber beams, and a covered outdoor gathering area. The building is proposed for the south end of campus, near the south parking lot and Blair/Tyson residences.
The College of the Atlantic Mount Desert Center, developed in partnership with community revitalization group Mount Desert 365, will bring space for 15 students, a faculty/staff apartment, and a year-round storefront to Main Street in Northeast Harbor beginning this summer. The project, made possible with gifts from Mitch and Emily Rales and Lalage and Steve Rales, was designed by Gordon, wearing his hat as an architect this time and working with project manager Millard Dority, COA’s founding director of buildings and grounds who retired this year (see page 70). Energy performance and low-carbon emissions are again at the forefront of the design.
In the fall of 2021, COA was presented with the opportunity to purchase the “Summertime” apartments on Highbrook Road and a small block of houses on Norris Avenue and Glen Mary Drive, both in Bar Harbor. The nine properties, with room for nearly 40 students, had typically been rented to COA students during the academic year, so when they went on the market, Collins, dean of administration Bear Paul, and others knew they had to act. Those properties, now securely in COA’s hands, underwent major energy and efficiency upgrades with guidance from director of energy David Gibson (see page 8) during the winter.
Combined with the Birch Tree Lane apartments just to the north of campus that were acquired in 2019, the college now has rental space off campus for 80 students. When the new campus residence hall opens in 2023, COA will have capacity to house 290 students, or 83 percent of the 350-person student body.
“I cannot overstate my gratitude to the many people who helped make these changes possible,” Collins said. “I want to thank each and every one of them for helping COA students thrive.”
Development plans for the north end of campus—which include removing the old arts and sciences building and adding additional performance space to Gates Community Center, a welcome pavilion off the entrance drive, and a multi-use building near the center of campus—are still planned, even if timing is up in the air. Funding for these projects was included in the successful $55 million Broad Reach campaign.
