UCLA, which has been on a campaign to vastly expand student housing around its Westwood campus, is planning a new 19-story tower that 1,150 students can call home.
Housing has long been a challenge for UCLA students, who have had limited options on campus and faced a pricey housing market in Westwood and nearby neighborhoods.
In 2022, UCLA announced that it would become the first and only University of California campus to guarantee housing for four years to first-year students and two years for transfer students. The campus now touts housing as a selling point for students it hopes to attract.
“Residential housing allows us to better ensure that every student gets a good start and is therefore more likely to be successful. So we wanted to give every student an option of having four years,” UCLA’s then-Chancellor Gene Block said in 2022. “That was the dream and it’s finally coming true.”
The latest new housing complex, recently revealed in a draft environmental study, calls for a 19-story student housing building for UCLA undergraduate students at 901 Levering Ave., adjacent to the school campus.
The proposed project would provide up to 1,150 beds within a combination of one-, two-, three and primarily four-bedroom units. The cross-shaped tower designed by Seattle architecture firm Mithun would include common courtyard and terrace areas oriented toward Levering Avenue, the study said. On-site parking for residents and guests would not be provided.
Five existing university-owned apartment buildings with a total of 52 beds would be demolished to make way for the new building. Work could begin as early as next year and be completed by 2030.
“If approved, this project will replace outdated buildings with a modern, fully electric high-rise and create space for more than 1,100 Bruins,” Pete Angelis, associate vice chancellor of housing and hospitality, said in a statement. “It will also strengthen our ability to provide students with a vibrant residential experience within walking distance of classrooms, cultural venues and the future Metro D Line station.”
The 901 Levering Terrace tower would be the latest in a string of large student housing projects built by UCLA in recent years, including the 10-story Levering Place apartments next door and a 17-story tower across the street, real estate website Urbanize said. The university is working on another apartment building for 500 students on Gayley Avenue, set to be completed next September for $108 million.
UCLA’s physical footprint of 419 acres is the smallest among UC’s nine undergraduate campuses and it sits atop some of the state’s priciest real estate, near Brentwood, Bel-Air and Beverly Hills.
UCLA is also working on converting the former Westside Pavilion shopping center, two miles south of the university at Pico and Westwood boulevards into a research park that will house the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, as well as other science and medicine programs.
