Fall move-in marks opening of new apartments

This fall's move-in was the first to see the inclusion of the new North Avenue apartments, the campus living spaces across North Avenue from the traditional Freshman Experience dorms.

"As of Monday, North Avenue has 1,934 residents. That number will probably go up in the next few days because we will have no-show giveaway and a couple of other things," said Dan Morrison, Director of Residence Life.

"Move-in went very smoothly. We are very proud of how well it went. We talked with Georgia State housing about how they managed it and made a great plan. We were able to move in over half the students in the first day of move-in on Saturday," Morrison said.

Housing provided equipment in order to deal with congestion in the parking lots and on the elevators.

"We bought 80 different rolling tubs and laundry carts to get into the elevators. They rented them with their licenses. It was amazing frankly. There was never a line - not to say it wasn't a hot sweaty day, but we were very pleased, and as I talked to families, they were very impressed with our staging,"Morrison said.

The North Avenue Apartments are an enclosed residential space, holding a small fitness center, a basketball court and the new East Side Market, a convenience store comparable to the West Side Market.

"They do not have a dining hall. There is a study going on right now to for us to determine what sort of dining use could be placed in that area, as each apartment does have a kitchen, but there are restaurants in the complex as well as the East Side Market, and we are working with campus dining to decide what is best for a self-contained space like that," Morrison said.

The gymnasium space will not be made available for all students but will only be open to North Avenue residents via buzzcard access, and their guests.

"All of that was built by Georgia State, whose residents were far away. The basketball court isn't even air conditioned; it just has big fans that suck hot air out, so at times it could be very uncomfortable," Morrison said. "We don't foresee it becoming too popular with Tech students who can simply walk or take a quick Stinger ride to the CRC."

The campus Stinger routes have been remade to include the North Avenue Apartments, with both the Red and the Blue lines making stops at the complex.

"We talked with the city of Atlanta, and they installed the lighted crosswalk. We also put up the counting-down crosswalk light, telling how many seconds are left before it switches over, so we are again trying to teach safe behaviors like using the Stingers and Stingerette as well," said Morrison about traffic safety across the congested North Avenue.

Anu Parvatiyar, undergraduate student body president, also addressed student safety at the North Avenue intersection.

"Now that school has started we want to ... hear what students have to say [about the area's safety]. If there are more concerns we are prepared to lobby the Department of Transportation to help ensure student safety," Parvatiyar said.

"We have been partnering all over campus to help ensure student safety. We started with the GT Police Department, which has already put a substation in the area with officers assigned to it. We also are continuing to use the card access used by Georgia State and have video cameras installed that are monitored by the GTPD," Morrison said.

"We at housing would just like people to remember that Tech has been across North Avenue for years. Before the North Avenue Apartments even existed, the property was the Techwood apartments and was the original locations of Junior's and Engineer's Bookstore. So it isn't something brand new for us; it is just us moving back into a property that we left for 12 years, after living there for 50," Morrison said.