Destinations, Dining & Sustainability

Common spaces, dining and destinations

A premier residential campus is built on vibrant neighborhood destinations where planned and “intentionally spontaneous” interactions occur between students, faculty and staff.

Exciting social and academic destinations and common spaces in the plan include:

1. an innovative new dining hall in the Global Neighborhood residential area, taking advantage of the setting surrounding Lake Mary Nell and serving as a magnet to draw students, faculty and staff from the entire campus to this area
2. possibly a new commons building in the Historic Neighborhoods, housing meeting/seminar rooms, learning labs and student entrepreneurial spaces, study rooms, faculty-in-residence apartment, late night coffee, etc.
3. a renovated West Parlor and first floor West enhancing student gathering/study spaces in the Historic Neighborhoods.
4. Lobbies, living rooms, study rooms, large glassed-in seminar/meeting rooms (approximately 2/3 the size of Inman Reading Room in Lindner Hall), kitchens, and student organization spaces in the Colonnades Neighborhood.
5. new recreation spaces in Danieley Neighborhood, including expanded fitness, outdoor spaces by Lake Verona, and more flat buildings with enclosures lounges and study rooms.
6. a new expanded home for the Isabella Cannon International Center in the Global Neighborhood.
7. an international themed late-night hangout and theater (combined for approximately 4000 square feet) in the Global Neighborhood.
8. study rooms, music practice rooms, lobbies, lounges, kitchens, classrooms and learning labs in the Global Neighborhood.

Click on the links below to see building options being developed

• Dining site option
• Dining building concept

Sustainability: A Key Concept in the Strategic Plan:

Elon University will remain committed to environmental sustainability in the design and structure of the new residence facilities. The goal is for all new buildings in this plan to be LEED Certified.

Green efforts:

• Geothermal heating and cooling system in all three new Colonnades residence halls
• LEED Certified buildings
• Grant for solar panels on top on Colonnades Dining Hall
• Creation of more green space and fewer concrete parking lots

The Colonnades geothermal project required drilling 112 holes, at 6 inches in diameter and 440 feet deep. Once drilled, a loop of high-density plastic pipe is pushed into each hole. The hole is then backfilled with gravel and grout. Water flows through the pipe from the pump house in a closed loop that never enters ground water.

In the summer, refrigerant circulated through the air conditioning system will carry away heat from the buildings and to an energy converter in the pump house. The energy converter passes the heat to the water in the closed loop well system, which then transfers the heat to the ground.

The reverse takes place in the winter. With temperatures below ground warmer than air temperatures, the heated liquid returns to the buildings to provide comfortable living space.

Elon staff members overseeing the construction project say the system will reduce the university’s consumption of fossil fuels and anticipate it paying for itself in the coming years, depending on increases in energy prices.

“But this wasn’t done solely on a payback basis,” said Neil Bromilow, director of planning, design and construction management at Elon. “This was done as an environmental priority.”