Taking its place among Kennedy Hall, Stetson East and Speare Hall, a new name will be added to the list of freshman residence halls in the summer of 2006: West Village F.

The final building in the West Village series, West Village F is well on its way to completion, said Nancy May, Northeastern’s project manager. May is overseeing the architects, engineers, design team, budget and most other aspects of the operation, and said she likes what she is seeing so far.

“Progress is going great,” she said, adding that right now, everything is on schedule, even with the recent heavy snowfall.

The building, located next to Willis Hall, will contain the John D. O’Bryant African-American Institute, eight classrooms and a 230-bed residence hall for freshmen honors students, May said.

West Village F will be the only residence hall in the West Village series available to freshmen, who are mostly housed in the multiple freshmen dorms on the other side of Huntington Avenue. President Richard Freeland said West Village F will give the freshmen housed there a taste of upperclass life.

“We haven’t done much new for freshmen in the recent past,” President Freeland said. “It’s going to be very exciting to see that whole plan come into being.”

The residence hall will house students from the third floor up, May said, with the building totaling seven stories. What makes the design of the building so different from other residence halls, she said, are the six-person duplex apartments that will make up the majority of the residence section of the building.

The first floor of the standard apartment will contain one bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room, while upstairs will hold two more bedrooms and another bathroom, May said.

“It will be like the upperclass apartments, except no single bedrooms,” she said.

Two-floor study lounges will also be featured in the building, with pool tables, couches and attached laundry rooms, May said.

Meant only for freshmen in the honors program, the housing will be the newest residence hall for freshmen. Some upperclass students, however, think building a residence hall just for freshmen honors students is unfair.

“I think if they’re going to make special dorms for the freshmen they should open it up to all the freshmen, not just a special sect,” said Erin Maher, a sophomore physical therapy major. “Why does the school think they deserve special housing? We are all paying the same amount to be here.”

Others said they thought Northeastern might be using the lure of new housing to get talented students to consider Northeastern.

“The question I would ask is, is that a selling point Northeastern has?” said Derek Christeler, a senior music industry major. “Especially to students doing exceptionally well in high school. They look at the good dorms they get as a way to bring a higher level [student to NU].”

Eight new classrooms will also be added to Northeastern’s campus with the building’s completion, May said, including a large 270-seat lecture hall. The classroom portion of the building will have its own entrance, she said.

Also getting a separate entrance, the African-American Institute will have two floors and over 15,600 square feet, May said. The new home for the institute will contain a library, a few small classrooms, administrative offices and a kitchen. The institute will also house the Amilcar Cabral Memorial Student Center, a student lounge for the institute and a location for many of its yearly programs and events.

May said the focus of the construction will be to get the institute moved to its new home as soon as possible.

“We want to get that ready first,” she said, and added she hopes the institute can move fully into the new building in the early summer of 2006, while she aims to have the residence hall and classroom portion of the building finished by the beginning of the fall semester. After the institute moves into West Village F, the old building will be demolished and replaced with landscaping, May said.

For now, the site of West Village F features a 22-foot hole in the ground. Over the next few months, however, students will notice the metal framework of the building begin to appear as construction continues, May said. While many students had complaints last semester due to the loud noise of steel plates being driven into the ground to support the foundation of the building, May said the noise shouldn’t reach that kind of level again.

“There will be some hammering, but it shouldn’t be anything near the sound of before. We’re glad to have that over with,” she said with a laugh.