Epsilon Alpha's new house
 

I have to gush.

I just came back from Homecoming at Missouri Science & Technology (aka University of Missouri-Rolla, aka Missouri School of Mines). The KD chapter there just built a new house and had their ribbon cutting and housewarming party this weekend.

It's incredible. It's the nicest sorority house that I've been in. The outside is pretty, but when you walk in, the house goes to a whole other level. The entry way is a 2 story great room with a fireplace and a second-level balcony all the way around. The balcony has sitting space and study space. It has beautiful wood floors and Arts and Crafts oak railings. The Arts and Crafts style is continued throughout the house. It's beautiful and the style is very Midwestern and unique. The girls' suites are incredible, too. They all have study rooms and separate bedrooms and private bathrooms. Some of the suites are ADA accessible and the house includes an elevator. The architects included a garage workspace for big projects like floats and another storage room/workspace for smaller projects. (They were clearly working on paddles for the new initiates before this weekend!) The house has 3 temperature zones on every floor, so that the heat and cooling can be controlled. Each floor has laundry facilities and snack kitchens and study areas. The whole house has brand new furniture, mixing simple modern styles with more Arts and Crafts. The security system is biometric. Every member has her finger print scan as a key; she places her finger on the scanner and the door unlocks. There are multiple outside sitting areas for women to eat or just hang out.

The house's flow and design is just so beautiful and useful. I think that it didn't hurt to have a committee full of engineering alumnae working with the architects to design the house.

If anyone is looking at a new house, I seriously recommend contacting the EA House Corp. for advice. They've done an exceptional job.

http://www.eakdhousecorp.com/newhouse/layout.html

Artist's drawings of the new house.

I heard about this house this summer - one of the Corp board members used to work for my husband - and I really enjoyed hearing about the sustainable features that went into the construction (I'm a construction engineer and working on my LEED certification, so I'm a big old construction nerd). Having been on an advisory council, we were sharing stories of alumnae that just need to take a step back.
One of the funny stories was that some of the women of the chapter could not quite figure out how the land line phone plugged in...cell phone, iPad, iPod -no problem. Land line phone? Not so much.

You laugh, but I had to explicitly teach my 9 year old to use a land line a few weeks ago.

Cell phone or smart phone? No problem!

Land line... "Mom, how does this thing work?"

God help him if actually had to use a rotary dial.

The sustainable features on the new house are pretty cool. (There was a minor tiff amoung some alums who thought the house as designed isn't green ENOUGH.) The house corp. website has a page just about the LEED features.

http://www.eakdhousecorp.com/newhous...bledesign.html

I am so excited for them! I visited EA when the plans were in the early early stages. This is going to do wonders for them!

Wow, that is an amazing house!! I love looking at pictures of Greek houses, especially since the ones here are so small and leased from a landlord.

Wonderful house. I know you are very proud as you should be.

I was perusing the site and found pictures!

http://www.eakdhousecorp.com/newhous...onupdates.html

The pictures don't really do it justice. It's hard to take a good picture of that entryway because it's so big.

I forgot to ask, how many girls can it house? I counted around 40, but I'm probably wrong. Do all of the rooms have bunk beds?

It holds 45.

I hear about NM classes of 100+ and just boggle.

I meant to ask that too...Over half my chapter could live in that house... and the pics probably don't do it justice, but they're still gorgeous :)

It's a beautiful house, and I'm impressed that they stayed on schedule and opened on time at Homecoming. Congratulations!