Woodland Hall Welcomes First Residents in Fall 2025
Sustainably designed building houses 402 students in suite-style living, with convenient access to Oberlin's athletics complex and the Science Center.
January 6, 2026
Office of Communications
Woodland Hall opened in fall 2025, during the same year Oberlin celebrated achieving carbon neutrality.
Photo credit: Bob Handelman
Some 402 Oberlin students began the 2025-26 academic year as the inaugural residents of Woodland Hall, the brand-new residence that came online in August, as nearly two years of construction drew to a close.
Woodland is the largest residence hall on Oberlin’s campus and the first new residence since Robert Lewis Kahn Hall opened in 2010.
Designed and built by Gilbane Construction Company, in partnership with the Toledo-based design firm The Collaborative, the hall is located on Woodland Street near the north end of campus, conveniently situated between the Science Center and athletics complex.
Woodland Hall’s interior was finished in summer 2025, and the building was fully occupied for fall semester; construction crews completed necessary finishing touches to the building’s exterior through much of the semester.
The hall’s first residents—all of them second-year students or higher—were chosen through a lottery system in spring 2025.
“Students are at the heart of the residential experience, and we’re excited to offer a space that brings living and learning together in meaningful ways,” says Vice President and Dean of Students Karen Goff. “With multipurpose rooms, study areas, and practice spaces, Woodland Hall was designed to make it easy for students to have comfortable options for studying and socializing within their own community.”
Woodland Hall includes social spaces on the first and second floors (top left), multiple meeting spaces on every floor, and private bedrooms for reach resident.
Woodland Hall is the first Oberlin residence to offer four-person suites. Each suite features a private bedroom for each resident, a kitchenette and dining area, a separate restroom and shower room, and a pair of vanities. A small number of single rooms, for resident assistants and to accommodate ADA needs, are also available.
All Woodland residents enjoy access to lounges, meeting rooms, and laundry facilities on each floor. Additional amenities include a multipurpose meeting room, full-service kitchen, acoustically optimized music practice rooms, and a courtyard and other outdoor gathering spaces.
The building’s design, including large windows in the main gathering spaces, welcomes sunshine from virtually every direction.
Sustainably Designed and Crafted
Woodland Hall ties into Oberlin’s recently completed geothermal heating and cooling system, the result of the institution’s four-year Sustainable Infrastructure Program, which ensured Oberlin’s status as a carbon-neutral campus in 2025. Designed to meet LEED Gold standards, Woodland is an exceptionally energy-efficient building and a model for future construction on campus.
In a nod to Oberlin’s deeply ingrained dedication to sustainability, tabletops in Woodland Hall’s community spaces were crafted from black walnut trees that were removed out of necessity to make Woodland Hall and the Sustainable Infrastructure Program possible.
Woodland’s parking lot is intended for use by students as well as faculty and staff. Its 226 spaces, along with EV charging stations that can accommodate four vehicles, have eased employee parking congestion in nearby academic buildings.
The arrival of Woodland Hall creates an opportunity to initiate a phased renovation of other student residences, including the introduction of energy-efficient central air conditioning to spaces that have never had it previously. For 2025-26, Fairchild House, Johnson House, and Old Barrows have been taken offline to accommodate planning for the long-term viability of each building.
The Dean of Students Office hosted an all-campus open house at Woodland Hall in late August. In October, the Board of Trustees honored the late Michael Kamarck ’73, a former trustee and biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry executive, who died in 2023. A plaque installed in the Woodland Hall courtyard pays tribute to Kamarck’s lifelong dedication to Oberlin.
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