By Anne Kirk
Smith Hall, the newest and arguably most beautiful residence hall on the Domain, serves as a stateof-the-art living space to 90 mostly first-year students. This co-ed dorm is fully equipped with two luxurious common areas, an indoor bike storage room, central air and heating, an outdoor study room and fire pit. Students will find a large common space full of comfortable furniture and a fireplace on the first floor, and on the third, a large flat-screen TV, preloaded with Netflix and 3D movie-watching capabilities, along with two comfortable study nooks on each side. “The TV on the third floor is a great place to hang out and meet other people who live in the dorm,” said Evelyn Ahnrud (C‘17). When on the third floor, students can expect to see their peers watching movies or studying together at any time of the day, and there will surely be a crowd gathered around the fireplace on the first floor as soon as fall weather arrives.
The dorm, built with many local, repurposed, and renewable resources, is LEED Silver certified, based on a point scale developed by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). This makes the dorm more efficient by reducing energy and water bills, and creates a healthy and safe environment for the 90 men and women who live in the dorm. Residents of Smith, like Katy Shetler (C‘17), agree that the use of sustainable resources to build the dorm was a great way to keep Sewanee’s campus green. “The great thing about Smith is that it was built with Mother Nature’s best interest in mind. And you know what they say: there’s no nature like Mother Nature!” Shetler stated.
As Sewanee’s first mostly-freshmen dorm, Smith creates many opportunities for freshmen to meet and mingle with others in their hall. “I love being able to meet so many people in the common areas,” Tessa Fox (C‘17) stated, “but I think that adding more upperclassmen in the dorm would create a more diverse community. Freshmen would be able to learn so much more about Sewanee.” On the contrary, Blanton Stagno (C‘17) believes that living in an all-freshmen dorm allows him to “create close bonds with classmates by watching movies on the third floor, or studying in the outdoor study area together.”
Though Smith is the newest building on campus, it looks as if it has been a part of Sewanee forever, blending in with Cannon Hall and the rest of the buildings that surround the dorm. It is conveniently located in the heart of campus, just behind Fulford Hall, and provides easy access to main campus. The lucky members of the Class of 2017 who were chosen to live in the dorm are grateful and proud to be the first Sewanee students to call Smith “home.”