Dorms for Grownups: A Solution for Lonely Millennials?

The floor plan you see here includes ten tiny one-bedroom apartments, each with its own bathroom and kitchenette, and not much storage space. They all share a common area with couches and TV, some recreational equipment, a large common kitchen, laundry facilities, and storage space. It’s an experimental living space in Syracuse, New York, called Commonspace, designed for young singles who want their own private space but don’t want to live completely alone. Owner Troy Evans and partner John Talarico hope to recruit tenants for an initial six-month lease. Will the people renting here get along? That’s the job of the “social engineer,” who will troubleshoot and arrange group activities.

The apartments will be fully furnished to appeal to potential residents who don’t own much (the units will have very limited storage space). The bedrooms are built into the big windows of the office building—one window per unit—and the rest of the apartment can be traversed in three big leaps. Residents will only have to sign up for six months to start. Evans and Talarico hope to also rent out some of the units on Airbnb to get fresh faces moving through the space.

The units will cost between $700 and $900 a month, which is slightly cheaper than the going rent for a one-bedroom in downtown Syracuse, the two say.

Would you like to live in a place like this? An article at The Atlantic compares it to dorm living, but it reminds me more of a retirement community. College dormitories don’t normally have kitchenettes or private space, and college dorms often cost more.