Every time Paul Benjamin steps inside his residence at 824 Hilgard Ave., he gets a “homey” feeling.
The Hilgard Houses, located at 720, 726 and 824 Hilgard Ave., are unlike the other housing options offered by UCLA, said Andrew McClure, supervisor of the Hilgard Houses.
The residences, originally sorority houses, were converted to undergraduate housing after the UCLA Office of Residential Life first leased the houses in 1995, McClure said.
The university initially leased four sorority houses: Alpha Gamma Delta, Zeta Tau Alpha, Sigma Kappa and Delta Zeta, which are all houses that no longer have chapters at UCLA, according to Daily Bruin archives
Since the houses were converted from sorority houses, they have unique architecture, McClure said.
The “homey” feeling referred to by Benjamin, the housing coordinator at 824 Hilgard, is in part due to this architecture. There are double, triple and four-person bedrooms and a living room in which students can gather and work.
“There is even an old intercom system the Hilgard students like to play with,” he said. “When the houses were sororities, the house mom would use it to speak with the girls.”
But the houses are not only unique because of their structure. They are also far from the hub of students who live on the Hill.
The Hill, where the majority of on-campus residents live, is located on Charles E. Young Drive on the other side of campus from Hilgard.
“All students have to do is cross the street and they are on campus,” McClure said of the proximity of the Hilgard Houses to lecture halls.
When at the houses, students form a close group of friends right from the beginning, almost like a family, Benjamin said.
“Living in the house allows students to create a close-knit community. … You get to see the same people every day,” said Brooke Genser, a third-year political science student who lives in one of the Hilgard Houses.
Living in a house lets students meet new people and have their own space, Genser said.
And students there have there own rooms and roommates like an off-campus apartment, but they still have access to the dining halls on the Hill as though they live on campus.
“I wanted to have an on-campus-but-off-campus experience,” Genser said. “I wanted a place that was close enough to school that I could walk, but still felt like I had my own place.”
Since the majority of students who inhabit the houses are transfer students, the balance between apartment life and dorm life is ideal, McClure said.
But whether the students are transfers, second-, third-, or fourth-years, the residents are a close group in the Hilgard Houses.
In fact, the students are “kind of forced to be together,” Benjamin said. “But in the end they, all really love living there.”
The common areas encourage togetherness, since they are the only locations with cable television, McClure added, and the house at 720 Hilgard has a communal dining hall at which all three houses can eat.
This communal set-up, like the dorms, allows many different types of students to meet each other, Benjamin said.
The close-knit group in the houses is quite diverse.
“This year we also have about 10 to 15 international students,” McClure said. “They’re from Germany and other parts of the country and their experiences are really unique.”
The diversity brings Hilgard inhabitants together.
But despite all that the residents like about the Hilgard Houses, there has been talk that they will no longer be open to undergraduates in the future.
There are plans to convert the houses again for other purposes.
“I believe housing may turn them into graduate housing,” McClure said, but there is no timetable for that yet.
According to McClure, they have been discussing the switch for years.
If the Houses are no longer used for undergraduates, future student will surely be missing out, Benjamin said.
“We’re always coming up with new things to do with each other,” he said. “The other day one of the guys said he wanted to go kayaking ““ so Saturday, we’re going kayaking.”