Four eight-story apartment buildings, along with an adjacent eight-story parking garage are scheduled to be built on the corner of Burbank and Nicholson Drive, changing the University’s skyline.
Robert Day, the project’s developer, said the complex is designed to be a self-contained walking community. The complex will be built next to Walk-Ons restaurant and the new Co-Op Bookstore, which will allow residents to travel to all of these places without getting into a car, Day said.
The complex will feature 343 apartments and will cost the developer nearly $200 million.
Chancellor Mark Emmert said the project will be very beneficial to the University because it will improve the area’s business and living needs.
With the construction of five buildings, Emmert understands that the project will “clearly change the skyline of the campus neighborhood.”
But, Emmert said Day has been kind enough to agree to design the buildings with a look that is consistent with the “LSU look” used on most of the newer buildings on campus.
Day said the building exterior will have a “mission look,” which is similar to the design used on buildings in the Quad.
But, some students said the new Southside Apartments will contribute more clutter to an already crowded campus.
Boyd Barbier, an accounting sophomore, said the construction of new businesses and apartments in the area may cause a spacial problem in the future.
“The campus seems like it is shrinking because they are building a lot of things around it,” Barbier said.
Barbier said he lives across the river and has no intentions of moving closer.
“I’m not moving closer,” Barbier said. “It’s too damn crowded over here.”
Jamie Smith, a political science junior, said she likes the fact that new apartments are going up, but would rather see apartments being built further away from campus to cut down on traffic.
“I think it’s nice, but it will make the campus too crowded,” Smith said.
Emmert said he understands students’ concerns, but the University is working closely with Day to make automobile traffic in the area better. They have discussed the possibility of using shuttle buses to transport students on and off campus.
Additional information of the projects’ expected construction and completion dates will not be disclosed until October.