Students in Barrett, the Honors College, will soon have a new home that officials are calling a vast improvement over the school's aging facilities.
Students working with the project's architect presented the preliminary designs for the building Monday at a meeting for honors students.
The college's new home will open in fall 2009 on the southeast corner of campus, near Rural Road and Apache Boulevard.
Plans call for eight buildings to house faculty and administrative offices, dining facilities, meeting rooms and student residence halls.
"When we build this new campus there won't be anything like it in the United States," said Mark Jacobs, honors college dean. "Not even close."
The critical component will be the centrally located dining facility, which will encourage interaction between students, faculty and staff, Jacobs said.
All of the more than 1,300 ASU faculty who work with the honors college in some capacity will likely be given periodic free meals to encourage interaction between honors students and University professors.
The goal is an atmosphere mirroring that at small private colleges and elite universities, Jacobs said.
"It's like lifting up a little liberal arts college and plopping it down in the middle of a large Pac-10 school," Jacobs said.
The dining facility would be part of a larger "community center," the plans show.
A computer lab, student meeting facilities, and a lounge would fill out the building, which would have large glass doors that open up to a sunken grassy courtyard.
Campus plans show several open fields and a volleyball court. Dozens of trees line the outer edges of the complex.
A concrete amphitheatre provides space for outdoor classes when the weather is nice, "because this is Arizona," said Jess Peet, the Barrett Honors College Council vice president who presented the architect's plans.
Design plans call for 1,700 student beds in four different room layouts, all with private or suite-style bathrooms.
The community-style bathrooms in Barrett's existing residence halls discourage students from living on campus for more than one or two years, Jacobs said.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for late summer or early fall.
Construction will be complete just before the fall 2009 semester, but some residence halls may be ready by fall 2008, Jacobs said.
Officials are planning part of the facility to be a living community devoted to sustainability, according to the presentation Monday.
Students planning the community are working with the architects to secure a silver rating from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
LEED certification is granted to buildings that are constructed in an environmentally sustainable fashion.
"Community is more than just physical space," said Peggy Nelson, associate dean of the honors college. "We don't want just a social dynamic or a physical dynamic. We want them integrated."
Reach the reporter at: jonathan.cooper@asu.edu.
