By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Pace University is building a new dorm downtown to bring more of its students within a short walk of campus, the school announced this week.
The 24-story dorm at the corner of Broadway and John Street will house about 600 students when it opens in 2013, the school said. It will replace residential space the university currently leases in Brooklyn Heights.
"This new residence hall will be a major enhancement for generations of Pace students who value the experience of living and learning in lower Manhattan," William McGrath, Pace’s senior vice president and chief administrative officer, said in a statement.
Designed by architect Karl Fischer, the new building at 180 Broadway features vertical lines of windows similar to Pace’s main building beside the Brooklyn Bridge entrance.
Pace was founded 104 years ago as a commuter school but has added residential options over the years, and now more than half of its undergraduates live in university housing, the school said.
Pace is working with SL Green Realty Corp. to build the new dorm, which will have retail on the first three floors and student amenities on another floor.
The demolition of an existing two-story building on the site has already begun.
The dorm is just south of the new Fulton Street Transit Center, scheduled to open in 2014.
