Dorchester Hall
University of Maryland, College Park

Dorchester Hall, originally constructed in 1959, is formerly a 168-bed dormitory located in the historic core of University of Maryland’s College Park campus. The four-story Georgian building was renovated to house 141-beds in residential bedrooms (a mixture of singles, doubles, and triples), all new community and gender-neutral bathrooms, an expanded staff apartment, new lounges, and study rooms. The building’s ground floor serves a campus-wide function offering laundry facilities, a community kitchen, staff offices, a larger multi-purpose lounge, and classrooms.

The scope of renovation included a complete gut of the building’s systems and installation of new HVAC systems and DOAS units, completely new bathrooms and plumbing, new electrical systems and services, new LED lighting, new finishes throughout, reconfiguration of areas to accommodate new study rooms, and other expanded program areas. The concrete frame building required great care and accurate planning to accommodate the proposed plumbing and HVAC improvements. Improvements to the brick veneer and limestone included masonry patching and repairs, and new historically correct replacement windows.