THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

Georgia Tech is readying a major multimillion dollar renovation of two existing student housing towers.

News of the $40M renovation of the Glenn and Towers halls was shared by Georgia Tech Department of Housing's  Michael Black(second from right) at Bisnow's Student Housing Summit last week at the Westin Buckhead. The audience of more than 200 also learned that architectural firm Niles Bolton  Associates will design the project. (Niles actually lived in the these halls when he was a "Ramblin Wreck from Georgia Tech" in the '60s.)

We should check Glenn Hall's IMDB page, since it appears to have been in every scary movie. ?Renovation is our daily bailiwick,? Michael says. Our other higher ed  panel agreed that housing is in short supply at Tech. Added Michael, ?Whenever we acquire housing or build housing, it goes pretty quick.?

Kennesaw State University Director of Residence Life Jeff Cooper, chatting up our guests with Emory's Andrea Trinklein. Jeff says his school's 3,000 student bedrooms are ?full every single year,? and the school still had a waiting list  of 800 students this past summer alone. KSU is approaching its 10-year anniversary of having on-campus student housing. The school is working on a master plan for housing growth in the next 10 years, Jeff says: ?We were at that point turning away prospective students from housing because we just couldn't accommodate them.?

Andrea says students ?expect a lot? when it comes to student housing. Emory emphasizes a lot of ?social lounge space,? including study lounges and gaming rooms, and even in-room sinks and suites in some buildings. New and renovated student housing has a higher satisfaction rate on student surveys than the older, apartment-styled housing, Andrea says. And while students are willing to pay extra for it, they do expect some form of sustainable features in student housing, including the use of gray water toilets and cisterns for landscape watering. ?Now the students expect it. You know, where's my blue toilet water?? (Yeah...where is our blue toilet water?)

During schmooze time, we caught up with Long Engineering's Shivana Waterman; she tells us her firm is conducting the civil engineering for Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Colosseum, which is being completely renovated: ?Only the roof is still standing.? (An engineering feat.)

This wasn't all the news at our event. Read tomorrow for more coverage. In the meantime, send your news to us (in Hilton Head, by the way) to [email protected].