The newly constructed Mary Louise Petersen Residence Hall, which welcomed students for the fall 2015 semester, recently won an Outstanding Design Award: Residence Halls from American School & University.

The coed, 10-story, 501-bed Petersen Residence Hall is situated on the west campus and is the first newly constructed residence hall for the University of Iowa since 1968.

Petersen Residence Hall provides a connection for students with similar interests featuring Living Learning Communities (LLC). On floors two to seven, 324 students live in 12 LLCs dedicated to various academic programs. Floors eight to ten are divided between the LLC model and a mixed-cluster configuration. These cluster floors are arranged for greater integration and mentoring between upperclassmen and freshmen.

The building, projected to be certified LEED Silver, also features a brick exterior, daylighting and visual connections to the greater campus community, a learning commons, Black’s Gold Grill, and multipurpose spaces.

Rohrbach Associates PC Architects was the design firm on the project.