The construction of Bond House apartments on Brandon Avenue has been behind schedule due to winter weather constraints, but the University anticipates the building will be completed in time for students to move in this August.
In an email sent to students by the University Housing and Residence Life, it was announced that the building is expected to be completed by the scheduled move-in period Aug. 25 and Aug. 26. In the event of any unexpected delays, the University has developed options including release from 2019-2020 housing agreement with no penalty, HRL facilitated connections with off-Grounds apartments and temporary on-Grounds housing in Alderman Road or McCormick Road residential areas with temporary free meal plans.
“At this point, we expect the Bond House apartments to be ready for occupancy in August,” Deputy University Spokesperson Wesley P. Hester said in an email to The Cavalier Daily.
Bond House — named after one of the leaders of the civil rights movement and the University of Virginia history professor Julian Bond — is a six-story building with 313 single rooms in four-bedroom furnished apartments.
“Bond was a part of the regular upperclass housing selection,” Hester said. “Since no one lived in Bond to be able to return to the same area, the first students who could select into Bond were rising second-year groups of six and four — really only groups of four since there are no six-person apartments in Bond.”
Generally, rising third- and fourth-year students returning to the same area are given top priority for selecting on Grounds housing, followed by rising second-year students, rising third- and fourth-year students living on Grounds but moving to a different area and rising third- and fourth-years living off Grounds who want to move on Grounds.
The construction of the Bond began in July 2017 and was originally planned to be completed by July 2019. The Bond House is a part of the larger Brandon Avenue Master Plan which aims to connect South Lawn to Brandon Avenue and develops a design “that makes the street feel more like an outdoor room.”
In an effort to create more community spaces on Grounds, President Jim Ryan has proposed a “Citizen-Leaders for the 21st Century” initiative as a part of a 10-year strategic plan which is designed to put the University on the path of becoming the best public University by 2030. This initiative will create residential communities on Grounds to house all first- and second-year students and provide opportunities for third- and fourth-year students to remain connected to their residential communities.