News

CIA’s first-year students are enjoying the college’s new Uptown Residence Hall with all the comforts of home, and then some. Videographer Jeff Mancinetti ’09 produced this video highlighting the amenities, including the apartment-style suites; shared workspaces with nice new drafting tables; decks galore; fabulous views of University Circle, downtown, and even Lake Erie; and a vital urban neighborhood right out the front door. CIA’s new Uptown Residence Hall is a big hit with first-year students.

In addition to filming students in their new digs, Mancinetti interviewed Matthew Smith, director of student life and housing.

The hall, built by acclaimed Cleveland developer MRN Ltd., accommodates 130 students, five residence hall advisors and one residence hall director. The majority of units are "quads," or suite-style living areas for four students with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a shared workroom and a kitchenette.

Smith explains in the video that a focus group of CIA students consulted on the design of the space and indicated that three things were really important to them: air conditioning, private bathrooms instead of shared bathrooms, and larger workspaces. Uptown provides all three.

Smith points out that the shared workspace in each suite helps to prepare students for the atmosphere of collaboration they will know at CIA.

And Uptown places students within easy walking distance of their classes, studios, University Circle museums, shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and the Case Western Reserve University dining hall they use. In addition:

• Each kitchenette has cabinets, countertops, a sink, refrigerator, and microwave
• Suites on the north side of the second floor all have personal balconies facing Hessler Street
• Decks boast views of MOCA, Uptown, the downtown and University Circle skylines, and Lake Erie
• Exercise equipment looks out over MOCA Cleveland
• Each floor has a lounge with a flat-screen television
• The laundry room has free laundry machines and a bench designed and made by Baillie Davis ’14
• Central air conditioning is controlled by the students in each suite
• Study counters on the fifth and sixth floors overlook MOCA and Toby's Plaza and have electrical outlets and USB charging stations
• Ground-floor retail, still under construction, will include a bank, sandwich shop, and bowling alley
• Security cameras are located throughout the building; outside doors and suite doors are accessed by key-cards

Click here to read a story about CIA's Uptown Residence Hall written by Plain Dealer art and architecture critic Steven Litt.