Aug. 18, 2008

VCU opens Cary & Belvidere Residential College

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By Tom Gresham

Cary and Belvidere Residence Hall
Cary and Belvidere Residence Hall


Cary and Belvidere Residential College
Fact Sheet

  • The $43.7 million residential college is the final building in Phase I of the Monroe Park Campus Addition

  • The 408-bed facility is located at the intersection of Cary and Belvidere streets

  • The housing component includes apartment style, two-bedroom and four-bedroom units for students, and three, two-bedroom faculty apartments.

  • The ground floor of the building provides commercial space that houses a Chili's restaurant, Starbucks coffee store and a convenience market.

  • Each unit includes a full kitchen and washer and dryer

  • Housing for sophomores, upperclassmen and graduate students

  • Each room equipped with cable access and high-speed Internet

  • Floors are equipped with communal study areas

  • Central security desk, staffed 24 hours a day, and reception area on first floor

  • Design is consistent with architectural guidelines created for the Monroe Park Campus Addition

  • Adjacent parking deck, a $17.3 million project completed earlier in the year, provides parking for students in the residential college

  • Parking deck has direct ramp onto Interstate 95

  • Architect for residential college is Hanburry Evans Architencts, Norfolk, Va.; architect for parking deck, Baskervill and Sons, Richmond

VCU continues to expand its student housing offerings this fall with the opening of the Cary & Belvidere Residential College, a 408-bedroom dormitory that will also feature a restaurant, a coffee store and a convenience market.

Cary & Belvidere opened its doors on Aug. 16 to the first wave of students residing in the facility. Sophomores, upperclassmen and graduate students are eligible to live in the apartment-style, two- and four-bedroom units. In addition, three apartments are reserved for faculty members. Residents sign 12-month leases for a room, and VCU officials expect many students will choose to live multiple years in the dorm.

Retailers located on the ground floor at the new facility will include Chili's restaurant, Starbucks coffee store and Cary Street Market and Deli, a convenience grocery market with prepared foods. Starbucks will open on Aug. 21, Cary Street Market and Deli will open Sept. 2 and Chili's will open Sept. 17. Chili's and Starbucks will offer outdoor and indoor seating. The retailers are expected to draw customers from both dormitory residents and the VCU and Richmond communities.

The residential college also features a large inner courtyard with space for recreation, a number of study rooms and office space that can be converted into classrooms in the future.

Cary & Belvidere, which cost $43.7 million, represents the completion of Phase I of the Monroe Park Campus Addition – the largest construction project in VCU's history. Other projects in the campus addition include the construction of a 240,000 square-foot complex that houses Snead Hall, home of the VCU School of Business, and East Hall, an expansion of the VCU School of Engineering; the construction of a new home for the VCU Brandcenter and the 689-space Jefferson Street parking deck. Those facilities all were opened in January.

Construction is not yet scheduled for Phase II of the Monroe Park Campus Addition, which will include a second residential college and an executive conference center.

Approximately 4,850 students have been assigned to student housing for the 2008-09 academic year. Student housing capacity will reach 4,986 by mid-September, and students are expected to fill each opening. As an illustration of the growth in on-campus housing at VCU, 2,672 positions were available for students during the 1999-2000 academic year.