Yale Building New Residential Colleges

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A $500 million construction project for Yale University’s two new residential colleges is now underway, expanding the New Haven school’s footprint northward. The project is the among the largest construction endeavors in Connecticut’s history.

The project is being funded by a $250 million gift from Charles B. Johnson, who gradated from Yale College in 1954, as well as other donations and fundraising efforts. It has already required $7.6 million in permit fees to the city of New Haven, according to the Yale Daily News. The fact that at least 125 New Haven residents will be part of the construction process will also help boost the local economy.

Federal law requires that all construction projects receiving federal funding ensure that 25 percent of work hours are performed by minority construction workers and 6.9 percent are performed by women. The city also requires that projects receiving city dollars reserve 25 percent of work hours for New Haven residents.

Although the construction project is privately funded, Yale is still requiring that 25 percent of the roughly 700 workers involved in the project be New Haven residents. Already, an estimated 25 New Haven residents have been hired through unions or the Committee for a Workers’ International in positions such as carpenters and pipe insulators, according to the Yale Daily News.

The school hired Plainville, Conn.-based Manafort Brothers to oversee construction of the north college building, while Seekonk, Mass.-based J.L. Marshall & Sons will construct the south college building. New York-based Robert A.M. Stern Architects, founded and led by School of Architecture Dean Robert Stern, designed the new colleges, which will create a new sense of campus geography once the school’s footprint is significantly expanded.

The opening of the two new colleges will allow the school to admit about 200 more undergraduate students each year. The colleges are expected to open in August 2017. The construction of these new colleges will be the latest of several other projects that opened in recent years, including a new scientific research facility and the new Edward P. Evans Hall for the School of Management.