Rutgers University-Newark (RU-N) has joined with RBH Group (RBH), who's behind Teacher's Village, to create a state-of-the-art learning and residence facility with dining, recreational, and academic spaces that will host upwards of 400 talented undergraduate students.

The approximately $70 million, 400-bed Honors Living-Learning Community will be a mixed-use development that will include residences, classrooms/work spaces, street level retail and parking, as well as a vibrant, open space that will be a gathering place for RU-N and the surrounding community. The estimated 320,000-square-foot project will include 30,000 square feet of ground floor retail. It will be located on the block bounded by New, Washington, Halsey and Linden Streets in downtown Newark. Perkins Eastman, an international architecture, design and planning firm, will design the project. Construction is expected to begin in late 2016 and be completed in 2018.

The Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC), is a transformative college access and success program that fosters the academic, social, and personal development of talented students from all walks of life with a desire to make a difference in their communities and beyond. With an innovative curriculum centered on themes of “Local Citizenship in a Global World,” The HLLC is an innovative RU-N initiative that is revolutionizing the notion of “honors” by creating intergenerational and interdisciplinary learning communities comprised of students, faculty, and community partners focused on tackling some of the nation’s most pressing social issues. Dynamic students are selected to join a living-learning community and intergenerational network across all intersections of identity focused on cultivating knowledge, fostering understanding across and within groups, and activating social, institutional, and cultural change. The current, inaugural cohort of 30 students will be joined by 60 more in fall 2016 who were selected from over 750 applicants. HLLC cohorts are planned to reach a steady state of 100 students per year by 2018, including first-year students and community college transfers.

The University selected RBH Group as the developer of this exciting urban learning community based upon a number factors including its commitment to social impact development in Newark and other emerging urban centers, as well as its development of Newark’s Teachers Village, a national model for transformative urban living and learning. Teachers Village is a mixed-use development comprising 204 workforce-housing units, three schools, an early childhood learning center, and over 60,000 square feet of retail space.