HICKORY — Lenoir-Rhyne University will build its first new residence hall on the Hickory campus in roughly 25 years, a roughly $25 million living-learning complex aimed at first-year students and timed for the university’s growing enrollment.
Eastside Commons, a four-story project approved unanimously by the Board of Trustees at its September meeting, is set to house 246 students when it opens in fall 2027. Construction begins this month, according to a university news release published Sept. 14.
The last new residence hall on the Hickory campus was the Living Learning Center, which opened in 2001. Eastside Commons will sit near Fritz-Conrad Residence Hall, forming what the university describes as a cohesive first-year residential neighborhood as Lenoir-Rhyne enrolls its largest incoming class in school history and plans for further growth.
“Eastside Commons is an investment in the future of Lenoir-Rhyne and, most importantly, in the students who will call this university home,” President Summer McGee, Ph.D., said in the release. “As Lenoir-Rhyne continues to grow, this project gives us an opportunity not simply to add housing, but to create an environment where students can build relationships, find community and feel a sense of belonging from their first days on campus.”
The building is designed as more than a traditional dorm. Plans call for private pod-style residential living, common rooms, study lounges, a community kitchen and three classrooms so academics and residential life share the same address. Together with Fritz-Conrad, the university says Eastside Commons will let nearly all incoming first-year students live in one neighborhood.
Philanthropic support will complement the university’s own investment, with naming opportunities available across the project.
A groundbreaking is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17, at 9 a.m. at the Eastside Commons site during Homecoming Weekend. Construction is expected to run through the 2026–27 academic year, with the first residents moving in for fall 2027.
Lenoir-Rhyne’s Hickory campus is at 625 7th Avenue NE.
Source: Lenoir-Rhyne University news release, Sept. 14, 2026.
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