The sound of banging hammers, drills and construction trucks have faded into the hum of students in TCU’s new residence halls, Amon G. Carter and Kellye Wright Samuelson Halls.The newly opened buildings house 314 upperclassmen and present a new face for the campus.

Presently, the dorms are filled to capacity and have waiting lists, said Megan Osborn, head resident assistant for Carter and Samuelson halls. Both facilities are co-ed and offer suite-style living with single-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units.

“The new dorm invokes the thought that it isn’t just a place where you sleep, but it is a place where you live,” Osborne said.

The halls provide an opportunity for students to show pride in their new place of residence, Osborn said.

“It is part of transforming both physically and who we are as a university,” said Craig Allen, residential services director.

For students, the new residence halls provide an alternative to the previous dorms offered to upperclassmen, such as Waits and Foster.

Maddie Marney, a sophomore pre-health professions major, lives in Carter Hall.

“It is a lot more free here. There are not as many rules,” Marney said. “They respect your space a lot more and your freedom.”

The new dormitory openings have provided no problems that were not previously anticipated, Allen said.

“We have had microfridges that are not working, some flooding,” Osborn said. “They are working on new things and making it work.”

Problems in the new residence halls have been fixed immediately upon request, Osborn said.

Carter and Samuelson halls are just the most recently completed section of the Campus Commons project.

The remaining two residence halls, Teresa and Luther King and Mary and Robert J. Wright halls, are scheduled to open in January 2008.