As Penn State's student population grows and its dorms age, the university is looking ahead, planning new, more efficiently spaced housing.

The university has a three-step plan spanning several years. First, new graduate student housing will be built on the west side of West campus. Next, Eastview Terrace, which is on-campus graduate student housing along College Avenue, will be torn down. Finally, new undergraduate student housing will be constructed where Eastview Terrace now stands.

Construction of the West campus graduate housing should start early this spring, said Paul Ruskin, Office of the Physical Plant spokesman.

The architectural group Weber Murphy Fox will complete the $20 million project, said Larry Bair, project manager.

It will be the first time new graduate student housing has been built at University Park since 1959.

The new buildings will be built behind the bus depot and engineering section of campus.

They will include single-person apartments as well as family units. For groups of single students, there will be 75 four-bedroom apartments. Families can choose betwejen 11 three-bedroom units, 47 two-bedroom units and 68 one-bedroom units.

Each unit will have a kitchen, living room, and one or more bathrooms. Plans also include a community center and a parking area.

Construction should be completed by the fall of 2002, said Fred Fotis, director of housing and food services.

Once the construction is completed, Ruskin said, graduate students will be housed there instead of Eastview Terrace, which will be torn down.

"It's time for that area to change," Ruskin said.

Details of the new housing to be built on the land that Eastview Terrace now occupies have not been finalized, but Ruskin and Fotis said it will likely be undergraduate student housing.

David Breon, university planner, said there will probably be a series of buildings constructed on the site. He estimated there will be about six new buildings.

There will be room for about 850 single dorm rooms, Breon said, but there will probably be a mix of single and double rooms in the final plans.

He said each room will probably have its own bathroom.