[Castillonis]

This is premium property that is close to the core of PSU and transportation. PSU should integrate student housing and some classrooms and offices into the design. I know that the school was originally forbidden from running housing as part of the agreement when it was founded. The school has grown significantly since I attended. College Housing Northwest who currently runs student housing has one 505 ft^2 apartment in the Clay building which will be available on 12/9 for $695 per mos. Normally there are no vacancies. More student housing would reduce demand for parking by allowing students who wish to live near campus to do so. How ironic for a University that supposdely has a top urban planning program.

I don't know how PSU would fund this construction. I would probably look to see how a recently constructed Broadway building (LEED) was financed. It has retail on the first floor with classrooms, computer labs on the second floor and student housing on the remaining floors. I visited an apartment in the Broadway building that has a kitchen and a bathroom. It was very small and rents for $700 per mos. Maybe a very small portion of the $200 million in tobacco money could have been used to subsidize interest on a bridge loan for additional floors for housing instead of building very large cardiac rooms on a hill where it is expensive to build.

I spent a great deal of time in that building when I studied engineering at PSU in the nineties. There is a book about an infamous hacker who was very persistent , but not very bright "@ large" which takes place in the PCAT building. I love the part about the moldy stairs. They used to Use sheets of plastic to temporarily protect the workstations from leaks in the roof.