Quincy Students Welcome Temporary Housing Options

Although students in Quincy House will be spread out among five buildings next year as Old Quincy undergoes renovation, residents say that they welcome the increased variety and quality of rooming options offered by the temporary housing.

Come April, students in Quincy will participate in the annual housing lottery. But this year, with Old Quincy serving as a test project for the College’s House Renewal program, administrators have made adjustments to the rooming assignment system, including the elimination of “senior standing.”

Next year, students will have the additional option of living in three apartment buildings in the Square, dubbed “swing housing,” in addition to New Quincy and DeWolfe.

In an email sent out to Quincy residents last week, House Masters Deborah J. and Lee Gehrke wrote that each suite in the swing housing has a kitchenette and its own private bathroom. Although most bedrooms will be for two students, there will be “a few single rooms scattered throughout,” the email read.

Lisa L. Hoffman ’13, who has lived in Old Quincy for the past two years, said spaciousness is her top priority for rooming next year.

She said her ideal rooming situation would be to live in a single within a suite with a kitchen. The swing housing, Hoffman said, meets these requirements.

“Also, living above J.P. Licks is pretty tempting,” she said, referring to Fairfax Hall, a swing housing option on Mass. Ave. that is also home to her favorite ice cream shop.

Other students said they would not mind the distance as long as they have large rooms.

Martha R. Farlow '13, who has also lived in Old Quincy for two years, said the interior of the building is in “definite need of renovation.”

“The walls are paper thin, the bathroom is falling apart, and the wooden floors are scratched,” Farlow said.

Though she does not mind the swing spaces' distance from the Quincy dining hall, Farlow said she would lottery for swing housing only if her blocking group of five people could all be housed in one building and each get a single.

Likewise, James J. McCune '14 said he and his blockmates are aiming for a space with the most room.

“If that is the swing housing, so be it,” he said.

Quincy House Committee co-chair Scott J. Yim ’13 said swing housing is ideal for “people who want an apartment style, off-campus kind of experience.”

As a HoCo co-chair, Yim said he would prefer to live close to the main hub of the House near the dining hall, the courtyard, and other social spaces in Quincy. Yim and his roommates will instead lottery for a four-person duplex on the sixth floor of New Quincy.

The three buildings for swing housing will be located in Hampden Hall at 8 Plympton St., Fairfax Hall at 1306 Mass. Ave., and Ridgely Hall at 65 Mt. Auburn St. A total of 180 students will live in these alternate buildings.

—Staff writer Jane Seo can be reached at janeseo@college.harvard.edu.