Accommodating science

Construction begins on a third CERN hostel to add almost 100 more rooms for Laboratory visitors.

When visitors flood to CERN for the start-up of the LHC, the Housing Service wants to have enough beds to put them in. To ensure this, construction began recently on a new hostel near the two existing hostel buildings 38 and 39. The new hostel, building 41, will be a three-story structure containing 98 rooms, ready for occupancy in June 2007.

There are a total of 315 rooms in the existing hostels, which have an annual average occupancy rate of about 75 percent, including weekends and CERN's end-of-year closure, said Housing Service Leader Eddie Roebuck of the Technical Support Department (TS). But on weekdays, the occupancy rate is much closer to 100 percent. 'Many hotels in Geneva would be jealous,' said Jean-Luc Baldy, Group Leader of civil engineering in TS, which is the group in charge of managing and supervising the construction work for the new hostel.

As a result of high occupancy, many Users are unable to book a room in the hostels even months ahead, Roebuck said. The new hostel would alleviate that problem by increasing capacity by about 30 percent. In addition, a possible second phase of the project would allow for a quick adjustment to increased demand in the future. Part of the new hostel building will connect with building 222, which is currently used for storage. If needed, an additional two floors of rooms could be constructed on that building's roof. The existing part of building 222 could also be converted into a main reception area for guests of the three hostels and a common area with kitchens and dining rooms.

'We tried to think not only of present needs, but possible future needs,' Roebuck said. 'If capacity follows the pattern it has done so far, perhaps in 8-10 -years' time we'll need to extend again.'

The last increase in room capacity came in 1998, when hostel building 38 was refurbished and extended by two floors. That expansion occurred just three years after hostel building 39 was opened.

Each with its own fully equipped bathroom, the rooms in the new hostel will fall into the Housing Service's 'top range' category. All room prices remain, however, extremely competitive compared with off-site accommodation, Roebuck said. They range from 26 Swiss francs per night for a single room equipped solely with a washbasin (toilets and showers being shared), to 55 Swiss francs per night for a single room with complete sanitary facilities.