The University of California, Merced has launched a $1.3 billion expansion that will nearly double its physical capacity over the next four years, and support enrollment growth to 10,000 students, from around 6,700 today.
Its Merced 2020 Project will add 1.2 million sf in academic, housing, and student-life facilities. These will include three new teaching and research lab buildings, 1,700 new beds for on-campus housing, 1,500 new parking spaces, a student wellness center, and the expansion of the university’s childhood education center.
This project will add a new entrance to campus and transit hub to improve student circulation. Students will have new dining options, too, as well as a conference center for community and campus events, and NCAA-II class outdoor athletic and recreation fields and a pool.
The first of three phases broke ground on October 14, and the project will be completed in phases from the Fall of 2018 through the Fall of 2020.
UC Merced opened on 2005 in California’s San Joaquin Valley. It is the 10th and youngest school in California university system, but UC Merced is attracting more students and rising in national rankings. Last year, it received 22,000 undergraduate applications for 2,100 open spots. “We’re coming of age in a remarkably quick period of time,” Dorothy Leland, UC Merced’s Chancellor, told the Los Angeles Times.
Merced 2020 will increase the size of the campus to 219 acres, from 104 today. The university has signed a 39-year contract—approved by the University of California Board of Regents in July—with Plenary Properties Merced (PPM), a private development consortium, to maintain major building operations at an annual cost of $10 million. PPM is responsible for the design, construction, operations, maintenance and partial financing for all new facilities added under the expansion program.
The development team includes Plenary Group (lead developer, equity provider, and financial arranger), Skidmore Owings & Merrill (campus planner), Webcor Construction (GC), and Johnson Controls (lead operations and management firm).
Merced 2020 is projected to produce a one-time benefit of $1.9 billion for the San Joaquin Valley and $2.4 billion statewide. It is expected to create hundreds of permanent jobs.
UC President Janet Napolitano (center left), MC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland (center), and UC Board of Regents Chairwoman Monica Lozano (center right), join UC Merced students during a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off the Merced 2020 project. Image: UC Merced.
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Slam dunk for the University of Nebraska’s basketball arena
The University of Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball programs will have a new home beginning in 2013. Designed by the DLR Group, the $344 million West Haymarket Civic Arena in Lincoln, Neb., will have 16,000 seats, suites, club amenities, loge, dedicated locker rooms, training rooms, and support space for game operations.
| Feb 23, 2011
The library is dead, long live the library
The Society for College and University Planning asked its members to voice their thoughts on the possible death of academic libraries. And many did. The good news? It's not all bad news. A summary of their members' comments appears on the SCUP blog.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable features on the bill for dual-building performing arts center at Soka University of America
The $73 million Soka University of America’s new performing arts center and academic complex recently opened on the school’s Aliso Viejo, Calif., campus. McCarthy Building Companies and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects collaborated on the two-building project. One is a three-story, 47,836-sf facility with a grand reception lobby, a 1,200-seat auditorium, and supports spaces. The other is a four-story, 48,974-sf facility with 11 classrooms, 29 faculty offices, a 150-seat black box theater, rehearsal/dance studio, and support spaces. The project, which has a green roof, solar panels, operable windows, and sun-shading devices, is going for LEED Silver.
| Feb 11, 2011
Research facility separates but also connects lab spaces
California State University, Northridge, consolidated its graduate and undergraduate biology and mathematics programs into one 90,000-sf research facility. Architect of record Cannon Design worked on the new Chaparral Hall, creating a four-story facility with two distinct spaces that separate research and teaching areas; these are linked by faculty offices to create collaborative spaces. The building houses wet research, teaching, and computational research labs, a 5,000-sf vivarium, classrooms, and administrative offices. A four-story outdoor lobby and plaza and an outdoor staircase provide orientation. A covered walkway links the new facility with the existing science complex. Saiful/Bouquet served as structural engineer, Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers served as MEP, and Research Facilities Design was laboratory consultant.
| Feb 11, 2011
A feast of dining options at University of Colorado community center, but hold the buffalo stew
The University of Colorado, Boulder, cooked up something different with its new $84.4 million Center for Community building, whose 900-seat foodservice area consists of 12 micro-restaurants, each with its own food options and décor. Centerbrook Architects of Connecticut collaborated with Denver’s Davis Partnership Architects and foodservice designer Baker Group of Grand Rapids, Mich., on the 323,000-sf facility, which also includes space for a career center, international education, and counseling and psychological services. Exterior walls of rough-hewn, variegated sandstone and a terra cotta roof help the new facility blend with existing campus buildings. Target: LEED Gold.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
| Feb 11, 2011
Four-story library at Salem State will hold half a million—get this—books!
Salem State University in Massachusetts broke ground on a new library and learning center in December. The new four-story library will include instructional labs, group study rooms, and a testing center. The modern, 124,000-sf design by Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch includes space for 500,000 books and study space for up to a thousand students. Sustainable features include geothermal heating and cooling, rainwater harvesting, and low-flow plumbing fixtures.
| Jan 21, 2011
Primate research facility at Duke improves life for lemurs
Dozens of lemurs have new homes in two new facilities at the Duke Lemur Center in Raleigh, N.C. The Releasable Building connects to a 69-acre fenced forest for free-ranging lemurs, while the Semi-Releasable Building is for lemurs with limited-range privileges.
