New Student Urban Campus Living

The University of Houston wanted a residence hall for graduate and professional students that would be an appealing option in urban campus living. Calhoun Lofts meets that need with 744 residential units and 984 beds over ground-floor retail, including restaurants and a coffee house. Units range from studios to one- and two-bedroom units, each with a full kitchen and living area. At 575,000-sf and a height ranging from eight to 10 stories, Calhoun Lofts is one of the largest University of Houston projects in recent history.

Unit décor is contemporary, with exposed concrete ceilings and floors. Resident amenities include a theatre room, a sky lounge, fitness center, catering kitchen, study rooms, and laundry center. The facility also has an open-air roof terrace with panoramic views of downtown Houston.

Four wings of Calhoun Lofts form a rectangle enclosing a landscaped outdoor courtyard area. Another wing bisects the courtyard into two smaller areas, one for residents and the other for access to the ground-floor retail.

The building structural system is two-way post-tensioned 6” slabs and shear walls. The rooftop terrace required special structural detailing to allow for drainage, plus a thickened slab for increased loading. Engineers also coordinated closely with architects on a unique skylight – a 12-ft diameter circular opening in the roof slab above the sky lounge. Mechanical and structural systems throughout facility and within individual living units are exposed to maintain the urban feel, requiring a high level of coordination to achieve appropriate finish detail.