The warm brick exterior opens into a lobby decorated in earth tones and soft lighting. Comfortable overstuffed chairs surround a gas fireplace. The front desk is staffed 24 hours a day. Upstairs, each unit includes a computer, unlimited Internet access, cable television hook-ups and specially designed space-saving closets. Many bathrooms have double sinks and the kitchens feature shiny new appliances. The laundry rooms contain modern, front-loading washers and dryers with digital displays.

     If you guessed that these are the features of one of Chicago's new condominiums, you'd be wrong. Instead, they are the amenities offered by DePaul University's two new co-ed residence halls, the 245-bed Belden/Racine Hall at 2311 N. Racine Ave. and the 343-bed Clifton/Fullerton Hall at 2350 N. Clifton St. Both facilities, and the newly rehabbed Munroe Hall at 2312 N. Clifton St., opened Sept. 6 in an area of DePaul's Lincoln Park Campus called West Village.

     Carefully designed with innovative features to meet the needs of 21st century college students, the West Village facilities are examples of how universities are transforming yesterday's barracks-like dormitories into today's homey, high-tech student residence halls. "Residence halls built to last 100 years or more don't have to look and feel like institutional facilities," said Eric Luskin, director of Residence Life at DePaul, who spent time on more than 100 campuses prior to assisting with the design of DePaul's new facilities. "Everything we've done, from the colors chosen to the layout, was done to balance durability with a warm, residential feel. The goal is to create a holistic living and learning community that supports academic excellence and respect for diversity."

     The West Village residence halls, which cost a total of $ 36.4 million to build and rehab, feature many innovative amenities that promote these goals and indicate trends in student housing. They include:

     · Integrated living and learning communities. A new Living and Learning program has been launched in the renovated Munroe Hall, where classrooms and academic and student affairs offices were added to the first floor. Three groups of 15 liberal arts students, who share an interest in a particular topic, will live and learn together in the residence hall. An apartment built on the first floor eventually may be occupied by a faculty member or visiting scholar. "The idea is that learning never ends," Luskin said. "There's a continuum of learning from the formal classroom setting to the informal gatherings on residence hall floors."

     · More privacy. The new residence halls are arranged in semi-suites. No more than four students share a compartmentalized bathroom that contains a separate toilet stall, shower stall and double sink vanity with a drawer for each student. The new facilities also feature more single rooms, increasing the number of single rooms at DePaul from 20 to 81. "More and more students are asking for single rooms," Luskin said. "Students enjoy privacy and will pay for as much of it as they can afford." Housing in the new residence halls for 36 weeks costs between $5,100 for shared suites to $6,270 for single rooms. Less private rooms elsewhere on campus start at $4,170. Upper classmen are more likely to return to campus housing if might have a chance to select a single room in the future, he said.

    · More space and flexibility per room. At between 187 and 250 square feet (excluding bathrooms), the new residence hall rooms are larger and more flexibly designed than ever before. Each student has his own, five-foot wide closet with shelves, poles, drawers and metal baskets that are adjustable to individual needs. Designed by Closet Works, the closet systems allowed DePaul to eliminate dressers, creating more space. Desks are larger to accommodate computers. Instead of hutches bolted to desks, one horizontal and two vertical bookcases have been added to each room. The versatile pieces can be separated or combined to accommodate books, supplies, stereos and television sets. Beds can be stacked as bunk beds or arranged separately.

     · Expanded common areas. Every floor of the Belden/Racine and Clifton/Fullerton halls has a combination of three group study rooms and lounges with kitchen/dining areas where students can gather to cook and eat meals together. More common areas with living room settings were also added to Munroe Hall. These areas promote interaction among students from diverse backgrounds.

     · Access to technology. Because DePaul has outfitted every residence hall room with computers, every room of the new facilities is equipped with a Gateway Celeron 500 megahertz computer with 64 megabyte RAM. Every student resident is given an Internet link with unlimited access and a personal phone line with voice mail, call waiting and forwarding. The room rates include cable television, too.

     · Enhanced security. Residents must swipe identification cards through an electronic card reader to enter. Lobby desks are staffed by residence hall staff 24 hours a day. Stairwells, laundry rooms and other key locations contain duress buttons that summon help in the event of an emergency. New fire alarm boxes, with a secret feature that has radically reduced false alarms in other residence halls, have also been installed.

     · Dual Income Streams. The Clifton/Fullerton Hall will include nearly 20,000-square-feet of retail space on the first floor, separate from the residence space. Such arrangements attract investors and lower interest rates for residence hall construction, greatly offsetting the costs of building new facilities.