A new residence hall in the works at Western Kentucky University will feature individual bathrooms, a dining facility and about 400 beds.

Brian Kuster, WKU’s vice president of student affairs, said the L-shaped residence hall will run along College Heights Boulevard and back toward Rodes-Harlin Hall.

“There’s still a lot of unknowns,” Kuster said, adding that drawings haven’t been made.

Kuster said the project would cost roughly $28 million. The project would be financed by the WKU Student Life Foundation, which was incorporated as a nonaffiliated nonprofit in 1999 to help renovate student housing, he said.

Work on the 16-month project is expected to begin in November, Kuster said. The building will mostly feature double rooms with some singles, but all rooms will have a “hotel-style” setup with their own bathrooms. Additionally, there will be a 5,000-square-foot dining facility open to all students.

Kuster said the dorms will be bigger than current rooms on campus but couldn’t say how much exactly, citing the early phase of the project.

“We’ll have all this done and decided by the end of July, the first of August,” he estimated.

With plenty of student housing available off campus, Kuster said the focus of the university’s master plan is on residential housing. The new dorm will act as a swing space while Barnes Campbell Hall is torn down in 2017 to be rebuilt in 2018. Bemis Lawrence Hall will undergo the same change between 2018 and 2019.

Both halls will be rebuilt with a “pod-style” bathrooms, which are bathrooms that are shared by a smaller group of rooms. It’s an improvement over having a bathroom per floor, Kuster said. If one person is making a mess, for example, it’s much easier to find out who.

“It’s a way to kind of create community within that small group of students,” he said.

Both buildings will have about 400 beds once completed. The current cruciform shape of both residence halls makes renovating difficult without losing a lot of space, he said. Both residence halls are in “good shape,” he said, after being renovated in 2005 or 2006.

Construction of the new dorm will preclude tailgating in the area while work is underway. Charley Pride, WKU’s director of student activities, said work will begin after homecoming in late October. He suggested underused space in front of McLean Hall and Bates Runner Hall to compensate.

As for the future, Pride said student leaders in the university’s Student Government Association and Greek organizations would be asked to help make decisions about new tailgating space.

Overall, Pride doesn’t see the change negatively affecting tailgating for students who really want to continue it.

“It’s not like this hasn’t happened before,” he said.

Bowling Green sophomore Hannah Rossi also doesn’t see the change as negative.

“A new dorm would be more beneficial to campus as a whole rather than just being able to tailgate in that area,” she said. “I don’t think it’s gonna damage tailgating at all.”

She also described the trend of moving away from communal bathrooms in dorms as “definitely a positive.”

As for other renovations, officials plan to make the lobby connecting Northeast and Southwest Halls multiple floors to improve access to both buildings. There are also plans to add an addition to Bates Runner Hall along with totally gutting McCormack Hall to add private bathrooms.

— Follow Daily News WKU, county schools and general assignment reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @aaron_muddbgdn or visit bgdailynews.com.