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Dorms For Grownups: a Solution For Lonely Millennials?
HughPickens.com writes: Alana Semuels writes in The Atlantic that Millennials want the chance to be alone in their own bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens, but they also want to be social and never lonely.That's why real estate developer Troy Evans is starting construction on a new space in Syracuse called Commonspace that he envisions as a dorm for Millennials. It will feature 21 microunits, each packed with a tiny kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living space into 300-square-feet. The microunits surround shared common areas including a chef's kitchen, a game room, and a TV room. "We're trying to combine an affordable apartment with this community style of living, rather than living by yourself in a one-bedroom in the suburbs," says Evans. The apartments will be fully furnished to appeal to potential residents who don't own much (the units will have very limited storage space). The bedrooms are built into the big windows of the office building—one window per unit—and the rest of the apartment can be traversed in three big leaps. The units will cost between $700 and $900 a month. "If your normal rent is $1,500, we're coming in way under that," says John Talarico. "You can spend that money elsewhere, living, not just sustaining."
Co-living has also gained traction in a Brooklyn apartment building that creates a networking and social community for its residents and where prospective residents answer probing questions like "What are your passions?" and "Tell us your story (Excite us!)." If accepted, tenants live in what the company's promotional materials describe as a "highly curated community of like-minded individuals." Millennials are staying single longer than previous generations have, creating a glut of people still living on their own in apartments, rather than marrying and buying homes. But the generation is also notoriously social, having been raised on the Internet and the constant communication it provides. This is a generation that has grown accustomed to college campuses with climbing walls, infinity pools, and of course, their own bathrooms. Commonspace gives these Milliennials the benefits of living with roommates—they can save money and stay up late watching Gilmore Girls—with the privacy and style an entitled generation might expect. "It's the best of both worlds," says Michelle Kingman. "You have roommates, but they're not roommates."
Co-living has also gained traction in a Brooklyn apartment building that creates a networking and social community for its residents and where prospective residents answer probing questions like "What are your passions?" and "Tell us your story (Excite us!)." If accepted, tenants live in what the company's promotional materials describe as a "highly curated community of like-minded individuals." Millennials are staying single longer than previous generations have, creating a glut of people still living on their own in apartments, rather than marrying and buying homes. But the generation is also notoriously social, having been raised on the Internet and the constant communication it provides. This is a generation that has grown accustomed to college campuses with climbing walls, infinity pools, and of course, their own bathrooms. Commonspace gives these Milliennials the benefits of living with roommates—they can save money and stay up late watching Gilmore Girls—with the privacy and style an entitled generation might expect. "It's the best of both worlds," says Michelle Kingman. "You have roommates, but they're not roommates."
I don't think this is a bad idea at all, but when I moved out of the dorm one thing I actually missed was the cafeteria and meal plan.
I remember disliking the food a lot, but although I ate better living in an apartment, eating better was a burden in terms of shopping, cooking, times where food got tossed because plans and schedules change, etc. I actually found myself missing the sheer convenience of food service. Even though I didn't always love what the hot choices were and opted for yet another salad and sandwich bar sandwich, all I had to do was show up.
The shared area around the rooms would be interesting (I remember the common areas being popular), but I would worry it would be too noisy and chaotic. They'd have to do something clever with architecture and flow to make it so that individual rooms remained quiet.
I think a loooonnggg time ago it was called a rooming house. You got a bedroom, your in-room bath was a pitcher of water, wash basin and a chamber pot. Meals were served in the dining room. You went to {bathhouse, whorehouse, river} to bathe, although I'm sure at least some offered a tub once a week.
Then they had efficiency apartments. I lived in one built in the 1920s -- galley kitchen, breakfast nook, one giant room, large closet and a bathroom.
I rather liked the efficiency. For a while I used the breakfast nook as my bedroom with a curtain to separate it off, which made the one large room more like a combined living/dining area.
It was also dirt cheap, but I never felt quite like an adult until I moved into a place with an actual bedroom.
The first generation? People in their 40's are being called "the lost generation" - squeezed between the pollution/debt/war/recession created by the boomers, and narcissist demands of millennials.
Interestingly enough, even military barracks often came with a CQ desk (and a voluntold person manning it) to keep order, and they reported to an NCO in charge of the building. Didn't slow down much - usually they only responded to something that got too violent or drunken. OTOH, the military imparts a way different mindset, and people get used to living in close quarters very quickly. It's not for everybody; on my part I tolerated it as a necessary evil, and moved into my own quarters (read: apartment) as quickly as my budget allowed.
You just learn to get along, even if you didn't like your bunkmates. If you didn't, then you were gently escorted out back by everyone else, where you and the object of your ire settled things in a quick, violent, but ultimately final* argument. Overall, you learn a valuable set of lessons from the experience of living together in tight quarters. You learn to tolerate personal quirks, you expand your own horizons a bit while you take in other cultures and habits, and you learned to live in a way that didn't outright offend everyone else around you. It's good training for married life, truth be told. ;)
Now for civilians, I don't see it happening very well. The military molded your mind in ways that accommodated close living. Civilians (At least American ones) don't necessarily have the mindset or skills. Some cultures (usually Asian ones) are very well suited for it, but I don't see too many Western folks jumping at the chance unless circumstances (e.g. outrageous local rent costs) make it necessary.
* mind you, nobody died or anything - you just beat the hell out of each other, then drank yourselves silly while you patched things up and sorted the problem out.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
My mother used to visit with an old lady named Mrs. Jones every so often. Being a kid, I couldn't figure out how my mother knew this woman. My mother was from 100 miles away and Mrs. Jones wasn't related to us or a friend of anyone else in the family.
Then I figured out that, she had run a house where young single women would stay. My mother had been dating my father since college, but they didn't get married immediately because she is two years older, so dad had to finish college first and then had to save up some money for a wedding and all of that. So, she moved closer to my dad's parents, and got a teaching job, but whereas today they might have just moved in together for the year or two that he was back, she lived in the rooming house right up until they got married.