The University of California Board of Regents has given its San Diego campus in La Jolla permission to build a huge student center and a 2,400-bed housing complex that will jointly cost $1.1 billion.
The La Jolla Light reports that construction of the Triton Center and the Ridgewalk North Living and Learning Neighborhood will begin this summer while the school is in the midst of building two other villages that will house 3,130 students.
The projects are part of a larger effort to accommodate thousands more students, primarily from California. Over the past decade, the system’s enrollment has soared by 55,610 students, hitting 294,309. The growth has caused a serious housing shortage.
A substantial portion of that growth is occurring at UC San Diego, which still has room to expand. The campus has about 43,000 students, up from 29,517 in fall 2013.
The $428 million Triton Center complex will be composed of four buildings that will house everything from student health services to an alumni and welcome center. One of the buildings will include a 500-person event space and an art gallery.
In addition to 2,400 beds for undergraduates, Ridgewalk North will feature administrative and teaching space for Thurgood Marshall College, the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Department of Economics, the campus said. There will be 19 new classrooms, a dining center and a 150-seat lecture hall.
Ridgewalk North is scheduled to open in late 2025. Triton Center will open in 2026.
The projects are being built “in pursuit of the intellectual, physical and cultural transformation of our campus,” Khosla said in a statement.
