By Rick Waters
The TCU Magazine

 

Marble floor entry. Bay windows. Flatscreen TVs. Wood paneling and an amphitheater and patio out back. This is not the Milton Daniel dorm you remember.

 

The renovated residence hall, which reopens this week, is in need of a new nickname, says Craig Allen, director of Residential Housing. "It's not the Milton 'Hilton' anymore," he says. "It's more like the Milton Ritz Carlton."

 

Closed since May 2009, the 300-bed Milton Daniel has long been known for its dark, musty, dungeon-like atmosphere, roughed up over the decades by male residents.  This month it emerges as the pristine new home of about 240 first-year and 60 upper-class students from the John V. Roach Honors College. “As with all our renovations, we wanted to include unique features, and we felt like our Honors students deserved high-quality amenities,” says Allen, who led a recent tour of the building while workers cleaned and finished final details.

The building’s entry is highlighted by tan marble tile floors and wood paneling on the walls and sections of the ceiling. The lounge off the main entrance has been extended 15 feet, befitting its new name — the great hall. Larger windows and a vaulted ceiling in the back bring in more sunlight. The soft seating, rugs and other furniture are the highest quality decor that Residential Services has put into a residence hall. "I think it has a richness to it, something that students will want to take care of," Allen says. "We also wanted lots of glass to get as much natural light in as we could."

 

A staircase off the great hall's west end descends to a basement library and study area with shelves, desks, soft seating and whiteboards. The basement also features a home theater projection system for watching movies. Just beyond the study area is a small kitchen with baking oven, microwave and Foosball table. Down the hall is the laundry facility with free load-and-go washers and dryers.

 

A back door from the first level opens out to a patio and mini-amphitheater with tiered retaining walls, which rise to a pair of NCAA regulation sand volleyball courts and the University Recreation Center. The Honors College intends to use the space for performances, guest speakers, barbecues and after-class discussions.

 

Milton Daniel also has an elevator for the first time. Dorm rooms in the basement and the first two floors are a mix of double- and triple-occupancy. The hall’s third floor will be reserved for upperclassmen and offer single and double rooms. Each room has Konecto-brand non-glue hardwood flooring and is equipped with its own thermostat, as well as microfridge, microwave, sink, extra-long twin beds, desks, chairs and closets.

 

Because the building is not symmetrical, several rooms are larger and have unique configurations. Similarly, each floor has alcoves, study spaces and common areas unlike others in the building. Some have flatscreen televisions and soft seating, while others feature whiteboards and desks and chairs. The second floor main lounge features a purple-felt billiards table. Floor-to-ceiling windows at the end of corridors and the common areas bring in more light than before the renovation.

 

Like other newly renovated residence halls, Milton Daniel’s bathrooms will be shared by an entire wing or section of a floor. They feature marble floors and have individual shower stalls with lockable doors. The third floor has special amenities for upperclassmen, including larger common areas, sound-absorbing ceiling tiles, rooms with larger closets, small study pods off the hallway and a main lounge with a faux fireplace and an arched bay window.

 

There are no sinks in the top floor rooms, so the hallway bathrooms have been designed “club style,” with multiple sink bays and built-in wooden cubbies with combination locks so students can leave their toiletries. "We tried different floor plans on the third floor, including suite-style units, but we had to get the bed count up," Allen said. "Our research has shown that Honors students are very social, and so we put extra effort into making wide common spaces for them to hang out and work together.

 

The building will be given a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certification, Allen said. Milton Daniel follows renovations to Sherley, Clark, Waits and Foster residence halls, which took place over the last six years. "We're having trouble finding ways to outdo what we've done before," Allen says.  "Ultimately, we wanted to make Milton Daniel so nice that students would be asking, 'How do I get into Honors?'