What is Old is New Again: A Peek Inside Today's Student Housing Trends

by Ripley Bickerstaff   May 12, 2025

Student housing right now is about balance. We’re building with both nostalgia and necessity in mind.

For example, projects we’re seeing are building double occupancy rooms with shared “bathroom pods.” That’s just a fancy way of saying “the same dorm layout I lived in twenty years ago.” Two students to a room, shared bathrooms, community-style living. What’s old is officially new again—and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, there’s a strategy behind it.

Universities have found that retention rates are better when students live with roommates. It makes sense—when you’re thrown into college life, it’s a lot less scary with someone to navigate it with. You build bonds faster when you’re brushing teeth in the same shared bathroom space.

Of course, as students move through college, the housing style matures with them. Suite-style and apartment-style setups become the norm for upperclassmen. Central living rooms, four bedrooms, a kitchenette. It’s not groundbreaking, but it works—and more importantly, it’s familiar and comfortable.

On campuses in dense urban environments, we’re building with concrete structures—it lets us go higher and gives us more design flexibility in the long run. For more rural or SEC-style campuses we’re using metal studs, building pitched roofs, and using fast, efficient, and familiar materials to suit the environment.

Some schools are also experimenting with “ghost kitchens” in student housing buildings—small, flexible food service areas where vendors can pop in and out rather than full-scale dining halls in dorms. It’s about quick bites, grab-and-go sandwiches and coffees, and yes, plenty of DoorDash deliveries.