Project: TSU – New Student Resident Housing
Educational Facility (College/University)
The New Student Housing project at Texas Southern University (TSU) is the result of a pilot program that encourages freshmen students to live on campus and participate in community, cultural, and educational events. The final design consists of 810-bed, 210,000 square foot residence hall at the edge of TSU’s campus that is connected to the main campus via a walkway known as the Tiger Walk. The seven story structure includes 400 student rooms, multiple academic/social spaces, and a 400 seat dining facility.
Our goal, as the masonry contractor, was to facilitate the architect’s design and to meet the owner’s budget. This was accomplished through a variety of value engineering suggestions that resulted in the final design. The materials supplied and installed on this project include:
• 125,000 Santa Fe modular craftwork brick
• 153,000 Canyon Brown modular craftwork brick
• 165,000 Ridgemar modular velour brick
• 20,000 Glacier White modular velour brick
• 7,400 Cobalt Blue glazed brick
• 500 Glossy Bluebonnet glazed brick
• 34,000 Onyx Burnished CMU
• 2,800 regular lightweight CMU
The construction of this project required special attention to detail as the masonry veneer consisted of two uniquely arranged modular brick patterns separated by two Onyx colored burnished CMU stair towers. On the outside of the horseshoe shaped residence, there are Santa Fe colored, stack bond, modular brick panels with Canyon Brown colored, running bond, accents at every fourth course of brick. In addition, a three course Canyon Brown colored brick band separated each panel from one floor to the next. On the inside of the horseshoe, the floors were similarly separated by a three course brick band; however, from the inside looking out you could easily mistake the building for a totally different building. This side included a Ridgemar colored, modular brick, laid in a running bond pattern with methodically placed Glacier White colored, modular brick accents varying in lengths and elevations. The Glacier White colored brick were also used as the bands that separated the floors. As a distinguishing characteristic, the windows within this brick pattern include a glazed brick jam on one side of each window. The single sided glazed brick jam alternates from one floor to the next. The primary color of the glaze brick jams is Cobalt Blue, however, when the Glacier White brick accents intersects the glazed brick jams, a Glossy Bluebonnet glazed brick is used. This feature highlights the brick accents and is a nice complement to the windows. As a result, the new student hall will serve the majority of TSU’s incoming freshman classes for years to come.