St. Olaf College engaged The Scion Group in association with Workshop Architects to assess how the College may continue to provide an exceptional on-campus student residential experience through potential new housing and renovations to current residence halls on the St. Olaf College campus. As an essential first step, the Scion/Workshop Team utilized qualitative and quantitative data with precise analytics to ensure that planning decisions encompass the true demand for future student housing. Furthermore, different renovation scenarios were explored relative to their impact on capital improvements, student experience, cost, and bed count.
For St. Olaf College, residential life is a strong defining feature of the student life experience. During the four years, students live on campus, they will live or socialize within most of St. Olaf’s eleven residence halls. The College has greatly improved the academic facilities on campus through the past few decades, and a similar investment in the residential buildings on campus could yield an even more engaging and impactful student experience. The diverse learning opportunities, both in the classroom and in the residence halls, bring students together in an educational community that provides them with meaningful undergraduate learning experiences and lifelong memories.
The Scion/Workshop Team’s Student Housing Market and Demand Analysis described the Team’s observations and recommendations regarding the potential for new and/or renovated student housing. In preparing findings, the Team administered an online student survey, conducted student focus group and whiteboard sessions, interviewed College stakeholders, toured existing residence halls and potential housing sites, examined the off-campus rental housing market and analyzed peer institutions to understand their housing options.
Scion/Workshop researched various phased implementation strategies relative to delivery methods and financial means to achieve the desired outcomes. This included an assessment of public-private partnerships to determine the intrinsic return to the College based on varying levels of control and risk. The College determined that a self-finance option was the optimal approach given their current state and aspirational outcomes.