SVA, which currently has an enrollment of roughly 3,500, has buildings scattered throughout East Midtown and rents housing space for students in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Jersey City. Established in 1947 as a vocational school, housing has been an ongoing problem as the school's reputation and enrollment shot up. And as SVA's prestige increased, its demographics changed apace.

"Now, we are the largest private art school in the country," Adam Eisenstat, SVA's director of communication tells GlobeSt.com. "The last five years have been especially acute in areas that speak to the demographics of our students. There are fewer older commuters and more traditional students. The number of students coming from 500-plus miles away has gone up 500% in the past five years.

The mainstreaming of SVA made new dorms a priority, Eisenstat says. And technology became a major consideration in creating student housing. "It's fully cabled up," Staubach's Gibb says. "The T1 lines are hooked to the SVA server so the kids can work out of their rooms. This building is equipped to the hilt, technology-wise."

"There are a lot of technological innovations that come with any upgrade of space," Eisenstat says. "The school is so dependent on technology, just like the rest of the culture."