EDUCATION

Barbecue and theater: Marquette's first new dorm in 50 years raises bar for college living

Karen Herzog

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The bar set for college dorm living keeps going higher and higher.

And Marquette University's glassy new, twin tower residence hall on the northwest side of campus is designed to be the ultimate home away from home for 890 students this fall. It's the first new residence hall constructed by the university in more than 50 years.

The large dining area of the new Rev. Robert A. Wild S.J. Commons residence hall features menu options that change daily, including smoked BBQ, fresh salads and several entrees.

The price tag: $108 million. Location: Just south of West Wells Street between North 17th and 18th streets.

Lots of last-minute construction details were still underway when the media got a sneak peek inside just one week before the Aug. 23 move-in day. Classes start Aug. 27.

We picked five cool things from the new Rev. Robert A. Wild S.J. Commons that former college students out in the real world can only envy.

Rooms with a view and snap-together furniture

You can shove a dresser in a closet and still have room for clothes. It's designed that way.

The rooms are singles and doubles, with air conditioning, of course. They're designed to offer students lots of options for moving furniture around so they feel at home.

Beds can be lofted or bunked without special extenders. Just move them up and down on their notched platforms. Desks snap apart for easy moving. The removable desktops snap into the notched platforms, too.

Even the desk chairs have removable backs for gaming with friends.

No hitting your head on these high ceiling, and the large windows have sweeping city views.

Prefer not to share a bathroom with 20 other students? How about four students per sink, shower and toilet? Each floor also has a private bathroom that's gender neutral so anyone who prefers privacy can have it.

One word: Smokehouse

The 625-seat dining facility in common space that connects the two residence hall towers is not only open 24 hours, seven days a week, it has a smokehouse to make barbecue and eight other types of food stations. The hall offers all-you-can-eat meal plans that average about $9 per lunch and dinner.

Barbecue aromas welcome students to the back of the dining hall, along with picnic tables designed to give them a southern picnic experience. In addition to smoked meats, mac 'n cheese and cornbread, sweet corn is shucked on site and tossed in the smoker, too. Barbecue is served in pie tins like you might find in a southern restaurant.

One food station is 100% free of the eight most common allergens. Everything is kept meticulously clear of allergens, from food prep to serving to the utensils and plates.

You can order a personal pizza cooked in a wood-fired pizza oven. It's ready within five minutes.

All baked goods — from pies, pastries and cakes to assorted breads — are baked on campus and fresh sliced.

Sodexo food-service workers Krystal Kidd (right) and Angel Mickey work on preparing garlic butter sauce and marinara sauce for breadsticks.

Two words: Theater staircase

Just off the first-floor dining hall is an unusual community space called the theater staircase.

It's a staircase to the second floor. And a theater. Check out the huge, floor-ceiling screen.

Comfortable seating extends alongside and up the stairs, creating a hang-out area to watch sports or movies.

The concept is to have plenty of spaces where students can socialize, getting them out of their rooms. The second floor also has a smart classroom where classes will be held during the day, and students can take over at night. Each floor has study lounges.

Both residence hall towers have secure checkpoints by the elevators for safety.

The Practice Room

One of the coolest spaces on the common second-floor area between the residence hall towers is the Practice Room.

It's a performance space with a mirrored wall and softer floor. Think art clubs, ballet class and stretching and flexibility classes.

The school wants the new residence hall to feel like a home away from home. So lounges have modern pendant lights, and there's no lack of windows to bring in lots of natural light.

Every lounge has a wall of windows, comfortable seating and a view. The color palette is neutral.

Students like to see and be seen. If your friends are in the massive dining hall in the dining and campus community space area that connects the two residential towers, you can be on the second floor and look through windows into the dining hall to find them.

The view from a 12th-floor commons area looking east.

Space to pray

There's a "faith and worship" space in the first-floor common area between the two residence halls.

While Marquette is a Jesuit Catholic school, the school recognizes spirituality and religion extend far beyond one faith.

The Catholic chapel has 25 seats, so Mass and prayer services can be held there. The interfaith space has neutral elements not specific to one faith.