George Washington University is advancing toward a gut renovation of its largest undergraduate residence hall, a building the school acquired in the 1950s and hasn’t fully updated since.

Plans for the existing 1,080-bed, roughly 190,000-square-foot Thurston Hall call for a reorganization of the rooms, bathrooms and common spaces, a much improved courtyard, a 3,900-square-foot occupied penthouse and additional daylight by carving out a significant portion of the rooftop for a new atrium. The project, which will result in roughly 200 fewer beds, was designed by Charlottesville, Virginia-based VMDO Architects.

The work is expected to require a closure of the building for up to two academic years, from the summer of 2020 to as late as the summer of 2022. In the meantime, first-year students who would have lived at Thurston will be accommodated in other residence halls, while The Aston and One Washington Circle will be offered to upperclassmen as temporary beds. That is according to plans…