Travis opens new dorm

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Charles V. Rivezzo
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  A ribbon-cutting ceremony and official grand opening of a new dormitory was held here March 25.

The $20 million, 51,000 square-foot complex, marks Travis' first "Dorms-4-Airmen" unaccompanied housing initiative.

The new living quarters offer suite-style apartments, each with four rooms, housing up to 144 Airmen. The "Dorms-4-Airmen" concept is designed to provide a four-person module with four private bedrooms, private baths, individual closets, a shared kitchen and laundry area and a common living room.

"To have a project of this scale with the amount of impact this building will have over the next 50 years or so for our Airmen is extraordinary," said Lt. Col. Daniel Guinan, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron commander. "Literally thousands of Airmen will call these buildings home, and make it a community we should be proud of here at Travis."

The over-arching concept behind the Air Force-wide initiative is to modernize its existing unaccompanied housing facilities as well as provide a higher quality of life for the Airmen who reside in them.

Airmen are able to enjoy the increased comfort because of the unit cohesion factors, since their suitemates are likely to be others from their unit.

"The idea of this style construction is to draw the Airmen out of the rooms and be more socially involved," said Staff Sgt. Matthew Amerson, an Airman Dormitory Leader. "Also, it's a way for us to look out for one another."

Travis leadership echoed Amerson's statement, adding that these new living quarters epitomize the wingman concept.

"With the new 'Dorms-4-Airmen' concept, you get the privacy you deserve, but you also have that communal area where you get the opportunity to bond with your fellow Airmen," said Col. Harold Bugado, 60th Mission Support Group commander.

Furthermore, along with providing a higher quality of life to the Airmen, the new dormitory is also environmentally friendly, as it meets the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design requirements.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council Website, an LEED certification means the dormitory was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance in the areas that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emission reductions, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Dormitory officials specified that the new complex will be broken-down evenly among the 60th Medical Group, Mission Support Group and Maintenance Group and Airmen will begin to move into the newly constructed dorms beginning March 26.