On the site of the former Rubelmann Hall, a new building is being constructed—but it’s not a new Ruby.

The building will be an extension of the already-standing Umrath House, and will share Umrath’s name. Administrators hope that connecting the buildings will help freshmen living in the Residential College interact more.

Other changes slated to accompany the building include a new office for the First Year Center and an intentionally empty space that will allow the building to accommodate the changing needs of students in years to come.

Associate vice chancellor for students, Rob Wild, reports that the building is within budget and on schedule for completion this summer.

The opening of the new building signals the end of another major phase in Washington University’s efforts to modernize the residential experience for students on the South 40, Wild said.

“The completion of Umrath is very exciting for the University because it really completes the core of the residential community on the South 40 that we’ve been slowly working towards since 1997,” Wild said.

The unified building will also feature the largest floors on the South 40 and three resident advisors for the entire building.

“The reason we made the decision as a University to call it all Umrath, instead of Rubelmann and Umrath like we do with Liggett and Koenig, is that it actually feels a lot more like one contiguous building,” Wild said.

Before construction began, students living in the Rubelmann/Umrath/South 40 Residential College had expressed concern that residents of Rubelmann and Umrath had limited interaction despite residing in the same community.

Former Rubelmann resident, junior Preston Sembler, believes that the unified Umrath will work to address this concern.

“I had a great freshman experience, but the thing that was missing from that freshman experience was a ResCollege, united feel, because I really never saw people from Umrath when I was in Ruby. I think that once it’s combined and a lot nicer also, there will be a much better ResCollege atmosphere,” Sembler said.

With Rubelmann gone, the RuSoFo Residential College will rebrand. After some consideration, Residential College Director Nick Dietrich decided to rename the residential college the “Umrath and South 40 Residential College.”

“There will be no more Rubelmann in the name of the Residential College, since there is no more building called Rubelmann. Moving forward next year, the name will be the Umrath and South Forty Residential College,” Dietrich said.

The new Umrath dorm will also house the First Year Center, which is currently located on the lower lever of the Women’s Building. The First Year Center’s move to the South 40 will bring its resources much closer to the homes of the students it serves, Wild said.

However, the new building will have space—equivalent to about 31 beds—left over. The goal, Wild said, is to keep this space flexible for now and to allow it to accommodate the future needs of students. This could mean converting the space to meeting rooms, a multipurpose space or additional housing, depending on what is needed in the years ahead.

“As we have this housing study going on, we decided to delay building out that space, and, when the building opens next year, it will be shelf space, as we think about how we are going to build that out in the future,” Wild said.