A Peek Inside Pyon-Chen Hall

Join departments of Resident Life and Residential Facilities personnel in a tour of the newest campus spot that Terps will call home: Pyon-Chen Hall. Suffused with natural light and built with an eye toward energy efficiency and student comfort, it’s set to open to students in August.

The 131,000-square-foot building between LaPlata Beach and Maryland Stadium will be one of two new residence halls in the Heritage Community, which when complete will accommodate about 900 students around a central plaza and featuring a new dining hall. 

The new building memorializes Pyon Su, who in 1891 became the first Korean student to receive a degree from any American college or university, and Chunjen Constant Chen, the first Chinese student to enroll at the university, in 1915. Johnson-Whittle Hall, scheduled to open in Fall 2022, will honor Elaine Coates Johnson, the first Black woman to graduate with an undergraduate degree, in 1959, and Hiram Whittle, the first Black UMD student, who arrived in 1951.