New grad student housing approved by regents

By Cynthia Lee

UC regents gave UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services the go-ahead to begin planning a $24.5-million project to build two Mediterranean-style buildings on the eastern border of the campus to house 82 single graduate students in new studio apartments.

The buildings will be constructed on three university-owned sites on Hilgard Avenue where three 1930s-era former sorority houses now stand. They are currently being used by Housing for transfer and upper-division undergraduate students.

While one building will go up on two contiguous lots at 720 and 726 Hilgard, the other will be built nearby at 824 Hilgard. The three- and four-story buildings will have parking spaces; and additional parking will be available at Parking Structure 2 across the street. The architectural style, featuring private landscaped courtyards, will be compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, according to the regents' report.

The university purchased the buildings years ago. "We did an analysis of what it would take to modernize these old buildings and bring them up to the current code," said Peter Angelis, assistant vice chancellor of housing and hospitality services. "For the amount of money it would take, it was cost-prohibitive. It clearly is a wiser move to go ahead and demolish the old structures and redevelop the sites with buildings that will look similar to the successful Weyburn Terrace project."

That complex, which opened in 2005 along Veteran Boulevard in the southwest campus, was built partially to enhance the academic departments' ability to recruit the best graduate students.

The Hilgard Graduate Student Housing will also attract a lot of student interest because of its proximity to the medical school and life sciences buildings, Angelis explained. "The gap in student housing continues to grow because of the lack of available rental housing and the cost of private sector housing in this area."

With the regents' approval of the project's design March 18 at their meeting in San Francisco, UCLA Capital Programs, which will manage the project, will start working with BAR Architects of San Francisco on specific plans.

Demolition of the houses should start sometime this summer. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in December, 2008, with completion of the project anticipated for April 2010.