GW’s largest freshmen residence hall will house substance free, honors and engineering students next year, a University official confirmed Tuesday.

Seth Weinshel, director of the GW Housing Program, said the University decided to place communities traditionally in Lafayette Hall, which will be under renovation next year, in Thurston for the 2010 – 2011 academic year.

“We chose Thurston for a number of reasons, one of which was the size of the building, any SEAS student or Honors student that wants to live in the community can, which we have been limited to in the past based on the size of Lafayette,” Weinshel said in an e-mail.

According to the Housing Program’s website, Thurston will house two thematic houses, one for arts and culture and another for politics and public policy along with five communities. The smaller communities include students in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Seven-year B.A. and M.D. Program and the University Honors Program. There will also be a politics and values community and a substance free community.

Weinshel said substance free housing was brought back after students requested an alcohol and drug free-living option.

For years students bragged that Thurston Hall was the second-most sexually active dorm in the country, but the ranking is a myth according to officials at Cornell University and Playboy, the two institutions students often credited the status too. Weinshel said Thurston has a different reputation each year and the residential hall will have a community based on the students living there.

“If a few floors in the building have a different type of community then the community… will have a different feel as well,” Weinshel said. “Each year the Thurston communities are different based on the people that live in the building.”