Longwood Landings will have a centralized laundry facility for resident use starting fall of 2017, rather than each apartment unit containing a washer and dryer unit.
“(Longwood is) putting in the laundry room so our maintenance staff can better address the needs when work orders arrive. Basically, right now, we are in a situation where obviously the units are in individual apartments, which means we have to rely on the students to submit work orders when things go wrong and that doesn’t always necessarily happen,” said Courtney Everhart, apartment manager for residential and commuter life (RCL).
The idea of installing a centralized laundry location was proposed in spring 2016, according to Everhart. The decision was made summer 2016 and informed students via email of the decision before the fall semester started. RCL worked with the Longwood Real Estate Foundation to make the decision.
“We (Longwood) wanted to make sure to wait so we could advertise that (the new laundromat) appropriately by the time housing sign ups came so that students were aware that they were picking to live in a place that wouldn’t have a unit inside their physical apartment,” said Everhart.
Work orders for the units are continuous throughout the year, contributing to the decision to install a large laundromat for residents and limit the places Longwood maintenance has to visit, according to Everhart.
Everhart said specific problems included dryers not drying clothes all the way, blocked lint traps and flooding due to students overfilling the machines.
“I think it will be a change, but I don’t think it will have a massive impact on how students function,” said Everhart.
Currently, each apartment unit holds a washer and dryer unit for residents to use at convenience. The current units will be permanently removed during the summer of 2017. Longwood has purchased and installed new washers and dryers for the new location, according to Everhart.
Contractors are currently working on the location next to the temporary gym location at Midtown Landings, according to Everhart.
Assistant Dean of Residential & Commuter Life Joshua Blakely said, “I think it’s going to be a culture shift for our students in the landings who used to do laundry in their apartments and now (are) traveling down to the centralized location. They are just going to have to plan ahead and travel a little bit whereas before they had the luxury of right there in their living room.”
Students will be able to use their Lancer Card to pay for loads of laundry, which is included in their room and board rate. The room and board rate will allow students to pay for two full loads, including a wash and dry for each one, according to Everhart.
“If they go over, they can add money onto their account to use and they can still use the facility throughout, so it’s not like they won’t be able to do laundry, they will just have to put that money on their card themselves,” said Everhart.
Lancer Park North and South have a similar style of how students do laundry with one laundry room located on each floor for residents to share, according to Blakely. The facility is run the same way that Longwood Landings is set to be run in fall 2017 with students using their Lancer Cards to pay for the laundry and be deduced from their room and board account.
