The university will begin converting the second and third floors of the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center into student dorms in May 2015, four months before students will move into the space.

As part of the 2010 Campus Plan to provide campus housing for 385 more students by summer 2015, the renovation will convert 70 hotel rooms into temporary housing intended for sophomores, and will be converted back into hotel rooms after the completion of the Northeast Triangle dorm, planned for fall 2016. The hotel has a total of 146 rooms, which means that students will take up almost half the available space.

According to Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey, the renovation will have minimal impact on the architecture and layout of the hotel. The current plan mainly involves the logistics of housing students in a hotel with guests.

“A lot of rooms have king-sized beds, so we’ll put in double beds for two students to be in there,” Morey said. “There will be some minor plumbing renovations and minor electrical renovations, but the primary part of the work … [is] the logistics of how to get the students in and out of the hotel. For student safety we want to minimize the amount of interaction between the hotel guests and our students.”

Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center General Manager Kevin Morris said that the hotel, which is managed by Aramark, has been working closely with the university on the renovation project in order to minimize concerns over how the changes will affect the hotel’s business, which includes providing accommodation for conference and wedding guests.

“Any time 50 percent of your available inventory is taken away, that poses significant changes to your business model,” Morris said. “To that end, the hotel is taking a very proactive stance in sourcing new business and partnering with other local hotels that can supplement hotel rooms for larger conferences.”
Morris said that students living in the hotel will still have to follow university policies.

“We are actively working to make the hotel a space that is comfortable for both students and hotel guests,” Morris said. “We are committed to working with Georgetown in aligning student policies while living in the hotel as closely as possible with current university policies.”

Additionally, students will not have access to hotel amenities such as room service, although the rooms will have their own bathroom.

The hotel renovations will provide housing for 140 students, while the reconstruction of the former Jesuit Residence will account for 148 students. Housing for the remaining 97 students will be created through the reorganization of unused or non-essential space on campus.

“It’s primarily turning large doubles into triples, and there’s a few common space areas we’re converting into rooms,” Morey said. “We’re also taking some townhouses that were not student residences before and turning them into student residences.”

The university expects the final project design to be completed in February, at which point it will be sent to the board of directors for authorization. When the design is authorized, construction companies will compete for a construction contract that will be awarded in May. The funding for the contract will come from a combination of university reserves.

Although the project is only in its preliminary stages, students are excited about the possibility of living in the hotel and the convenience that it will offer.

“The hotel has great access to Leavey and that’s good because I like to study in Sellinger and Regents,” Benjamin Lillian (COL ’18) said. “Also, I’d like to be able to stop by Einstein’s or Uncommon Grounds for a quick breakfast on the way to a morning class.”

Kristen Sullivan (SFS ’17) said that the rooms, although useful for providing space, may create a fractured campus.

“Honestly, I think if the university transformed the hotel into dorm rooms, it would create a strange dynamic on campus,” Sullivan said. “Not only would the hotel be an isolated living space, but more people would filter through the hotel area and the food court, and I’m not entirely sure how that would impact the hospital crowd.”