Standard Hilton Garden Inn architecture

On October 14th Dr. Sam Stanley sent an email to the campus community announcing an agreement had finally been reached to build a hotel conference center on the campus. It was followed a few days later with a press release announcing that it would be a Hilton Garden Inn.

More than twenty years in the making, it took the economic downturn to finally get all the parties to an agreement.
---Construction over the next two years will give sorely needed jobs to a hard hit industry during these trying economic times.
---The end result will provide on-campus hotel rooms for graduate students and faculty visiting SBU for conferences without the need for transportation.
---It will give families of sick patients at the SBU Hospital a place to stay within walking distance.
---It will provide more desperately needed rooms during special University events. Alumni coming for Wolfstock this month found the local Holiday Inn already sold out in August!
---It will make it possible to have conferences in a facility actually designed for that purpose rather than using the space designed for art exhibitions in the Wang Center. 

Best of all, it will cost the University nothing. The facility will be built by Harbor Construction Management, owned by SBU alumnus Dr. Robert Frey, and construction will be overseen by another SBU alumnus, Harbor Realty COO Frank Toner. Once completed, the University will get an annual six figure lease payment with a 3% annual escalation fee plus a minority equity share in the hotel. All funds generated will stay on campus, not go up to Albany.

But as alumna ASA VP Sherry Ha asked, for those who were here on that magical day seven years ago when the Wang Asian American Center opened to such promise, "a boy meets girl place" according to Charles Wang, once the President of the Chinese student club at his alma mater, the hopeful question is - will the dreams for what the Wang Center was supposed to be finally come true? Now that there will be another facility on campus capable of hosting conferences and special events - will Asian interest student clubs and events find that there is finally time and space available for them? 

The only negative in the announcement was that it would look like the renovated Humanities Building whose new facade looks like an inexpensively constructed 1950's high school. PhD student Steven Leigh wrote, "Humanities is ugly but I think it's because it's to match the rest of campus... just a rectangular brown building." Hilton Garden Inns are all similarly designed to the photo above and while not with the same aesthetics as a Hilton Hotel, hopefully it will surpass the architecture of Humanities. SAC was once Old Bio and it looks much better than Humanities.

Hilton Inns Homepage: http://hiltongardeninn1.hilton.com/en_US/gi/index.do

From: Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., M.D., President
Date: 2009/10/14
Subject: To the Campus Community

To All Faculty, Staff and Students,

As members of our campus community I am pleased to advise you that we have have reached an agreement with a local developer to build a 135-guest room facility on a parcel of land east of the University Administration building parking garage. Construction of the new hotel is expected to be completed approximately two years following initial groundbreaking.

The concept for a campus hotel has been under consideration for more than 20 years, and I am very excited to say that we will soon be able to offer this overnight guest accommodation service to the University community. Our goal is to offer a comfortable accommodation to the many thousands of visitors we invite to and host at Stony Brook every year, and it will soon be a reality.

The 11 acre parcel will feature landscape design in keeping with existing campus aesthetic, a dedicated parking area, and an entrance off Circle Road, just south of the Administration parking garage. The hotel will feature a brick exterior facade with a look similar to that of the Humanities building. The hotel will also feature a 5,000 square foot meeting space, a restaurant, indoor pool, exercise room and sundry shop.

Our extremely active University campus hosts more than 500 events and activities each year, including the Stony Brook Film Festival, Parents & Family Weekend, Homecoming Weekend/Wolf Stock, commencement and convocation ceremonies, conferences, symposiums and dignitary visits and major athletic events such as the upcoming 2011 NCAA Women's' Final Four Lacrosse Championships. With tens of thousands of patients treated at Stony Brook University Medical Center each year, families from eastern Long Island and others coming from long distances will find the on-campus hotel a welcome addition to Stony Brook University.

Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., M.D.
President

Excerpts from press release
Oct 19, 2009 - 6:23:55 PM
STONY BROOK, NY, October 19, 2009 – “We have reached an agreement with Harbor Construction Management – a local developer – to build a 135-guest room facility on a parcel of land east of the University Administration building parking garage,” announced Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., M.D. Construction of the new hotel is expected to be completed approximately two years following initial groundbreaking. In final discussions with Hilton Garden Inn for hotel management, Harbor Construction Management will incur the cost of hotel construction. Stony Brook Foundation Realty (SBFR) will receive a six figure annual lease payment with an annual three per cent escalation fee, plus a minority equity share in the hotel. All funds generated will stay on campus.

“The concept for a campus hotel has been under consideration for more than 20 years, and I am very excited to say that we will soon be able to offer this overnight guest accommodation service to the University community,” said President Stanley. “Our goal is to offer a comfortable accommodation to the many thousands of visitors we invite to and host at Stony Brook every year, and it will soon be a reality.”

The 11-acre parcel will feature landscape design in keeping with existing campus aesthetic, a dedicated parking area, and an entrance off Circle Road, just south of the Administration parking garage. The hotel will be LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), featuring a brick exterior façade with a look similar to that of the Humanities building. Additionally, there will be energy efficient components built into the hotel operations (similar to that of the Advanced Energy Center at Stony Brook). It will also feature a 5,000 square foot meeting space, a restaurant, indoor pool, exercise room and sundry shop.

Stony Brook University hosts more than 500,000 guests and visitors every year, to such events and activities as the Stony Brook Film Festival, Parents & Family Weekend, Homecoming Weekend/Wolf Stock, commencement and convocation ceremonies, conferences, symposiums and dignitary visits and major athletic events such as the upcoming 2011 NCAA Women’s’ Final Four Lacrosse Championships. In addition, tens of thousands of patients treated at Stony Brook University Medical Center with family and friends visiting from eastern Long Island and others coming from long distances will find the on-campus hotel a welcome addition to the campus.

About Harbor Construction Management
Harbor Construction Management is a construction management firm owned by Stony Brook University Alumnus, Dr. Robert J. Frey, (SBU ‘87 PhD Applied Mathematics and Statistics), who’s Chief Operating Officer and Head of Construction, Mr. Frank Toner, is also a Stony Brook University alumnus (SBU ’79 MS Industrial Management).