By Donald Gilpin

Almost three years since groundbreaking and many more years in the planning, Princeton University’s Meadows Neighborhood on Washington Road is ready to welcome a full complement of graduate students, athletics teams, and more this fall.

“The Meadows Neighborhood will provide a place that is experienced as a natural, yet distinctive extension of the existing campus,” wrote Associate Vice President for Capital Projects Dozie Ibeh. “The initial projects encourage a lively community of living and learning.”

Construction is complete at the Meadows Apartments, with 379 new housing units for graduate students. Students began moving in in late April and full occupancy is expected by the fall semester.

With the new apartments the University can house many more graduate students and also offer “a number of features that enhance the residential experience and contribute to building a sense of community,” according to Dorian Johnson, executive director of housing and real estate services.

The apartments are equipped with in-unit laundry services, study rooms, community spaces, a children’s playroom, a retail cafe, outdoor green space, covered bike racks and an indoor bike room, barbecue grills, and the Racquet and Recreation Center, to be completed this fall. It will be the new home of the University squash and tennis teams and will include indoor courts, locker rooms, coaches’ offices, sports medicine facilities, and a fitness center.

Also slated for completion in the fall semester are the softball stadium, Haaga House (home of the varsity women’s rugby team and the men’s rugby club), and adjacent rugby fields. A second phase of roads, pathways, landscaping, and infrastructure is also expected to be completed in the coming months.

“The site placement of buildings on Meadows has been optimized to reduce the overall development footprint and create a walkable campus,” Ibeh wrote. ”Roads are designed as ‘complete streets,’ with facilities shared between cars, bicycles, pedestrians, and generous landscaping and green infrastructure elements.”

Meadows Apartments residents and those attending athletic events have access to parking in the five-tier, 612-space Meadows Garage, which includes electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to accommodate 40 vehicles at once.

Ibeh noted that dedicated sidewalks and bike lanes are available along Washington Road for cyclists and pedestrians, connecting the Meadows Neighborhood to other areas of the Princeton campus and town, with Tiger Transit also providing regular service to and from the Neighborhood.

The Meadows Neighborhood project has been designed and built to be operationally carbon neutral and to minimize environmental impact, Ibeh added. “The Central Utility Building (CUB) provides the district hot- and cold-water system with geo-exchange to provide heating and cooling,” he wrote. “The Graduate Housing buildings have been built to accommodate the installation of solar panels in the future and are seeking both LEED and Passive House certification.”

The project has also been designed to minimize its impact on the woodlands and Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park to the west.

Johnson pointed out that graduate housing on campus has been in high demand, and he noted that the Meadows Apartments “significantly increases” the number of studios and one-bedroom apartments, which are the most requested unit type. There are also two-bedroom, three-bedroom, and four-bedroom units spread across the three buildings that make up the new complex.