Possessing the current title of being the newest building, Monadnock has a lot of expectations. As of right now, it’s already starting to have a legacy.
The apartment building is approximately over 100,000 square feet with 75 apartments and 300 hundred residents.
Nicole Noons, the Resident Director of Monadnock gave some insight into the apartment building’s real purpose.
“This is the first apartment complex designed to be a student community.”
Noons, is excited to see what the community will accomplish this year.
One of the biggest things she’d like to see happen to Monadnock is to see the multipurpose community room on the lower level and the fourth floor’s conference room used as way to attract offices into the building. For example, one goal is to have the fourth-floor conference room be used as an office for the career development center, so that way students can simply go upstairs to get their resumes evaluated.
As an RD, Noons has a lot of ambition to help cement Monadnock as the place to live on campus.
Over the eighteenth month construction process, Heather Lorenz, the Dean of Students, and Shannon Brown, Director of Residence life, had weekly meetings over the entire construction period over how the building could be designed to fit with student and university needs. The building’s implementation went smoothly in large part of this.
An interesting aspect of the building’s landscape is that the rocks featured around the building are from the initial blast site when the construction company started digging the foundation. The initial landscape of Monadnock still exists through these rocks.
Monadnock is also one of the first res halls with specific autism spectrum rooms.
“The walls in autism spectrum rooms are more sound resistant to help decrease the chance of sensory overload, we’re passionate about making sure whoever wants to live here can live here” Noons explained.
Monadnock Hall Resident Assistant, Marissa Stahl-Hodgkins, a senior, mentioned what she thinks makes the community great.
“The diversity of the residents brings a lot of perspective into everything and makes the job more interesting.”
Even with one of the building’s considered shortcomings such as the lack of air conditioning in the apartments, has a well-intentioned reason behind it. Considering it would be too expensive to have air conditioning in every apartment, having central air throughout the public areas of the building is meant to draw students out of their rooms to make connections within the community.
The parking situation is Monadnock’s greatest shortcoming to the point where walking to the nearest parking lot is considered a workout by some, but plans for a more convenient parking lot is planned for the near future.
Monadnock isn’t perfect but it’s arguably the greatest architectural resident building on campus, especially given that it was built in eighteen months. Living here is a luxury.
If students have any questions or concerns, feel free to stop by Noon’s office on the first floor, or send her an email at n.noons@snhu.edu.
