Officials Break Ground for Warren Street Residence Hall to Open in Fall 2022

NJIT executives officially broke ground yesterday for the new residence hall on Warren Street, scheduled to open in the fall 2022 semester at the site of a former Newark elementary school.

Amenities will include private kitchens, bicycle storage, a parking garage, creative space, indoor and outdoor cafes, game room and a grass courtyard. It will be constructed with a focus on environmentally-friendly methods and materials.

"This housing will dramatically enhance the living experience for our students and it will meet a need that they've expressed to us for affordable apartment-style living on campus. This is extremely important. A lot of work has gone into this," Dean of Students Marybeth Boger said.

"This new residence hall will enable NJIT to continue to grow and meet the workforce demand for STEM graduates. Once completed, this venue will offer apartment-style residences that provide amenities our students will appreciate," university President Joel S. Bloom added.

Bloom and Central Ward Councilwoman LaMonica McIver both acknowledged the historic nature of the former public elementary school at the corner of Warren and Wickliff streets. The new hall will have a museum-style exhibit of the location's history in the lobby, and its architects are planning to implement the original exterior archway, relocated indoors. Highlander expertise is among the project advisors, most notably Branko Kolarevic, dean of NJIT's Hillier College of Architecture and Design.

LaMonica was raised nearby and said she attended that school, but a fire in 2019 made it infeasible to restore. "Here in the Central Ward, we are literally expanding and building, there's a lot of development. We are pushing forward and we're excited about that. We're excited about the expansion today. I'm looking forward to the ribbon-cutting," she said.

The student body agrees. "I am very excited about the addition of the new Warren Street residence hall. It will positively impact the experience of the students residing on or near campus," said civil engineering major Connor Maguire, president of the Residence Hall Association, who hails from Little Egg Harbor and will be a junior this fall. "On behalf of the RHA we welcome the future residents."

Substantial construction will begin by August. Jeremy Doss, of development company RISE Real Estate, said NJIT officials impressively moved ahead with project planning throughout the COVID pandemic, where other colleges tabled residence hall plans.