Experience Magazine

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SPRING 2016 SPRING 2016 10 11
Building Council’s website, “LEED® stands
for green building leadership.” Clemson has
a goal to achieve at least a LEED® Silver level
certification for all newly constructed buildings
and large renovations.
As one of Clemson’s biggest and most exciting
current capital projects, Douthit Hills will be a
location for premier campus living. Executive
Director of University Housing & Dining,
Kathy Bush Hobgood, commented, “The
synergy of offering a diverse set of experiences,
all in one location, will create a unique
environment that will draw students to it. We
will now be better able to craft unique housing
options for students during each phase of their
Clemson careers, when they previously had very
few on-campus options during their junior and
senior years.” By combining recreation, retail
and housing, this project will become one of
several new thriving communities for the entire
campus. In turn, it will create a more welcoming
and inclusive place for our Tigers to learn
and roam.
Follow all of the division capital projects
at
percent of seniors and 15.4 percent of juniors
lived on campus. This can be partly attributed
to the fact that there are simply not enough
beds to accommodate them. The Douthit Hills
project aims to attract students who would
normally settle for off-campus housing by
offering a close proximity to the main campus
and other facilities. Recent studies have shown
that students who live on campus have higher
GPAs and graduation rates than students who
live off campus. Thus, the impact from having
Bridge students and upperclassmen living on
campus within the same community will be a
positive one, not only in terms of academics,
but for social reasons as well.
With an approved project cost of $212.7
million, Douthit Hills is our University’s largest-
ever project in scope and in cost. It is estimated
to be completed and occupied by August
2018. In accordance with other buildings on
Clemson’s campus, the buildings erected for the
Douthit Hills project will achieve LEED® Silver
Level Certification, which is the recognized
standard for measuring building sustainability.
The LEED® green building certification
program is the nationally accepted benchmark
for the design, construction and operation of
green buildings. According to the U.S. Green