Construction on a $17.5 million residential village by Rand Hall at Bates College in Lewiston has begun. The 150-bed, three-building design is a hybrid of traditional dorm and suite layouts. Sleeping eight to 14 students, each cluster will comprise a common lounge and several single or double bedrooms. Where bedrooms in a typical dorm suite open onto the common room, the Bates version interposes a corridor between the two. Students will walk down a corridor to get to the suite’s lounge, a configuration offering enough space to hang out with close friends while encouraging new connections with others in the cluster and floor. Glass walkways on the second and third of three floors will connect the buildings. The dorms will open to students in September 2007.