At UC Davis, plenty of hard hats to go with mortarboards
Sacramento Bee 5/11/07
UC Davis' construction zone reputation is well-earned. The campus is about seven years into a decade-long building boom that when finished will amount to $1 billion in construction.
"It's a fantastic time," said Bob Segar, associate vice chancellor for campus planning. "I've been on campus for 17 years and it is a thrill to be part of the growth and development of this place."
Five big projects worth in excess of $200 million are either under construction, recently finished or about to start.
The most prominent is the $30 million Aggie Stadium, still undergoing finishing touches. A lacrosse match has already been played at the stadium, which can seat more than 10,000 fans.
The other four big projects, reflecting about $195 million, are the $55 million Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine & Food Science, an $80 million veterinary research building with labs and offices, a $25 million veterinary classroom project and a $35 million west-entry parking structure.
The Mondavi Institute is under construction, the veterinary research building is almost done, the veterinary classroom project is completed and the parking structure is open.
This decade has been one of the busiest in the university's history.
"If it is not unprecedented, then there hasn't been anything like it since the 1960s," Segar said.
Segar said growth was necessary for several reasons:
• Increased student enrollment, which has grown by 6,000 in the past decade, has fueled the need for classrooms, new offices and labs for research.
• Research activity has surged. UC Davis annually has received $500 million in research grant awards.
• The maturity of the campus has drawn "once-in-a-generation" facilities that serve students and the community, including the Mondavi Center for the Arts, a new gymnasium and the stadium.
For years, motorists driving by on Interstate 80 mostly saw a water tower and parking lots. That has changed and continues to change.
Currently visible from I-80 is the Mondavi Center, opened in 2002, and its parking structure.
The Mondavi Institute, which will have a vineyard, is rising nearby. And across an open space from the Mondavi Center, a new Graduate School of Management and a new hotel and conference center are planned.
Davis Mayor Sue Greenwald said she has always thought that the hotel and conference center is "not integrated enough with downtown Davis." She said it would have been mutually beneficial if it were nearer downtown.
Segar said downtown streets could not have handled the traffic that will be generated by the buildings going up along I-80.
Also planned by the university is the 208-acre West Village project on university farmland west of Highway 113 and south of Russell Boulevard.
The project includes 500 homes to be sold to faculty and staff, apartments with street-level shops that will house 3,000 students, a satellite campus of the Los Rios Community College District and a satellite high school facility for the Davis Joint Unified School District.
Another major project, which should start construction late this year, is a $40 million building for the geology department with physics and chemistry teaching labs.
Segar said UC Davis construction this decade, totalling nearly $1 billion, comes from state funds, federal money, student fees, gifts from benefactors and private industry partners.
Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, likes what she has seen at UC Davis. The new buildings add to the stature of the university, and that is good for the region, she said.
"A strong university is a strong city, is a strong county, is a strong region," said Wolk, a former Davis mayor and Yolo County supervisor. "The university has undergone tremendous growth over the last generation and their building program is catching up with it."
At the core of construction are the opportunities the buildings provide students, Wolk said.
"That is really what the university is about -- what happens in those classrooms," Wolk said. "It is important they be adequate. Better than adequate, frankly. It is important they be worthy of the University of California."
Junior Carly Maris, a tour guide for prospective students, said teens who want to attend UC Davis sometimes ask about the construction.
"I think they are really excited, especially about the stadium that is being built," said the medieval studies and classical studies double major.
As for herself, "I am really looking forward to going to football games."