Luxe new LG Laundry Lounge at University of Tennessee is a U.S. first

Gone are the days of hunting for an open washer or dryer in Fred Brown Jr. Hall’s laundry room. The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has upgraded the space into something you can’t find anywhere else in the country.

Over winter break, University Housing transformed the laundry room into the Laundry Lounge powered by LG Electronics. It’s the first Laundry Lounge in the U.S.

It’s a pilot program, with UT and LG partnering to make it a reality and emphasizing LG’s ties to the Volunteer State through its factory in Clarksville. LG works with universities around the world to transform student and classroom areas, including an initiative in South Korea called Another Campus that equips student lounges with innovative home appliance technology.

The UT transformation is an upgrade in several ways.

Forty-eight new LG smart washers and dryers are ready to use. Students can use the Laundry Crew app to check unit availability, track the time remaining on each cycle and set reminders to pick up their clothes.

“These machines are highly energy-efficient, so that was also helpful for us in terms of providing something that is energy efficient, more eco-friendly,” Vice Chancellor for Student Life Frank Cuevas told Knox News.

Students won’t need the app to use the machines, only to check the status of laundry. Washers and dryers already were free to use for students living on campus.

Decked out Laundry Lounge turns a chore into leisure

If that wasn’t enough, the lounge features an LG TV gaming wall complete with Xbox controllers and games already downloaded, as well as a sitting area and computer monitors for students.

UT will receive feedback from students during this pilot period to improve the experience.

“The idea is to make it easier for our students,” Cuevas said. “Their precious commodity is their time, and they spend about 85% of their time outside of the classroom space. So, let’s make it a little bit easier and make it friendlier for our students to be able to do life’s chores in a very easy, (low-stress) way.”

Pilot program could expand to more areas of University of Tennessee

UT chose Brown Hall to test this space because of the size of the existing laundry room and because the residence hall is a high-traffic building in the middle of campus. This gives students from all over campus a chance to see the space and offer feedback.

The lounge primarily is for Brown Hall residents, Cuevas said, but a resident could invite a friend into the building to use the facility.

If the pilot is successful, UT might explore implementing more Laundry Lounges. UT also could experiment with transforming community kitchens on campus, Cuevas said, but the university is focusing on laundry for the time being as it learns more from LG about partnership possibilities.

“As we’re thinking about modernizing the campus space … it’s creating physical spaces for students to come together in community. This Laundry Lounge powered by LG gives us that,” he said. “As we start looking at other buildings and creating what I call ‘transformative environments’ for students, it’s about how do we draw people to come together in community to really get to know their neighbors, to really get to know their campus.”

Keenan Thomas is the higher education reporter for Knox News. Email: keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com.

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