St. John's News

Brand-new courtyard townhouses will soon be called “home” by 289 upper class students at St. John’s University. The three-story, Collegiate-Gothic-style residences, which sit at the edge of the leafy Great Lawn on the University’s Queens campus, consist of seven-person apartments organized around five landscaped courtyards.  Each apartment is comprised of two double bedrooms and one triple that share a living room, kitchen and two baths. Each is accessed from a semi-private courtyard balcony

Each townhouse apartment includes:

• Three shared bedrooms with desks, beds, drawer and closet storage
• Two private bathrooms
• Full kitchen with electric stove, sink, cabinets, and full-size refrigerator
• Spacious and modern Living Room with dining table, chairs, and couch/loveseat
• All Living Rooms open onto courtyard balcony
• Washers and dryers in each courtyard
• Student-controlled heating and air-conditioning units
• Wireless Internet access throughout each apartment and cable TV and wired Internet access in each room.

Entrance to each townhouse will be through stone gates. The entire surrounding area will be landscaped with trees and plants that complement and enhance the current Great Lawn and campus landscaping. Stone walls in front of the new dormitories will provide a unique opportunity for friends of St. John’s University to be recognized for their generous donations to the University and its Vincentian Mission.

This latest addition to St. John’s housing options not only increases the number of beds available for students who wish to live on campus, it provides other perhaps less-obvious but substantial advantages to resident students. During the 1990s, University leaders recognized that in an ever-shrinking world, students attending St. John’s would need a more global experience. In 1999, with the opening of six dormitories on its Queens campus, St. John’s began its transition from a wholly commuter school to one that now attracts resident students from across the nation and around the world.

In the decade that has followed, the number of resident students has steadily increased as has the demand for on-campus housing. The Founder’s Village Townhouses, conceived as part of a multi-year Strategic Plan, will enhance the on-campus housing options for students in their sophomore, junior and senior years and assist the University’s efforts to attract not only students from across the globe but also those from nearby areas who wish to live in a global community. The additional housing also provides more students with the support system they need to achieve and succeed in their academic careers and offers a multitude of opportunities for broadening their horizons and becoming responsible global citizens.