An official familiar with campus housing issues said the University is “very close” to making an agreement to house students in The Gallery, a luxury Rosslyn apartment building, next year.
“I do believe students will be living in Virginia next year,” the official said. The apartment building, located at 1800 Wilson Ave., is two blocks from the Rosslyn Metro stop.
Robert Chernak, senior vice president for Student and Academic Support Services, said he could “neither confirm or deny” that the University was looking at The Gallery, but acknowledged that GW is searching for undergraduate housing outside Foggy Bottom, including in northern Virginia.
Chernak said the University would like to announce a new housing option by April 15 to enable students to analyze their options before the scheduled housing selection April 26 and 27. However, students could find out new options as late as April 21, he said.
Executive Vice President and Treasurer Louis Katz, whose office is in charge of acquiring new facilities, failed to return phone calls this week. Officials with Bozzuto Management, the company that manages The Gallery, also failed to return multiple phone calls.
Chernak said the University is in need of housing for more than 500 students next year and has been looking for a short-term solution to house the burgeoning undergraduate population while meeting city zoning requirements.
Chernak said GW is looking at Virginia specifically in response to the D.C. Board of Zoning and Adjustment order, requiring the University to house 70 percent of undergraduates within campus boundaries or outside Foggy Bottom.
“(The order) is one of the primary reasons we are searching for housing in Virginia … a building out there would meet the conditions,” Chernak said.
The zoning order then requires GW to house 70 percent of students exclusively within campus boundaries by 2006. Chernak said the University could then use a Virginia residence to house graduate students, professors or University staff.
The 19-floor Gallery is set to have 381 rooms when it is completed in mid-June, building officials said. It is currently 18 percent full, and another 7 percent of rooms are pre-leased by prospective tenants, said Donna Dawson, a building leasing consultant.
The luxury building, which includes 60 different floor plans, is pre-wired for high speed Internet and includes a state-of-the-art workout facility and an outdoor heated pool, Jacuzzi and putting green. As of Wednesday, only rooms up to the eighth floor were accessible via elevator and workers were painting rooms and beginning to work on outdoor landscaping.
The building allows pets and rooms include maple kitchen cabinets, fireplaces and plush carpeting, and some provide views of Georgetown and the Potomac River. There is also an underground parking garage and a 24-hour computer center.
Chernak said the University is looking at primary options that can accommodate “large groups” in order to preserve a “sense of community” but said some secondary options could force GW into housing students in multiple buildings.
“If it turns out that one complex doesn’t have sufficient vacancy … we may have to look at other options,” he added.
He said GW is looking at a number of ways to make the new option attractive, including allowing students to live together regardless of gender. He said the new option would could also allow for “independent living,” and students might be able to live in the building at least 12 months after graduation.
“We are not in the business of discriminating against students similar to what the District has done,” Chernak said, noting that GW is hoping to allow students to have the same rights nonstudent residents have.
