UC San Diego breaking ground on 2,400-bed residential village and huge student center

UC San Diego’s rapid growth will expand further this week when the university starts building a 2,400-bed residential village and a large student union that will become the social center of the La Jolla campus.

The projects will jointly cost nearly $1 billion and are meant to help meet a big demand for student housing and create a central gathering spot at a school where enrollment could rise by 7,000 over the next decade. The university currently has almost 43,000 students.

The new housing village — known as the Ridge Walk North Living and Learning Neighborhood — will replace low-rise apartments that have served UCSD since the mid-1970s.

In addition to housing, Ridge Walk North will provide teaching and administrative space for Thurgood Marshall College, the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Department of Economics, the campus said. The complex will have four buildings, the largest of which will be 18 stories tall. The site is northwest of Geisel Library.

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Coastal Commission approves construction of Ridge Walk North neighborhood on UCSD campus

The project includes housing for 2,400 undergraduates, administrative and teaching space and more, with four buildings standing six to 18 stories tall.

May 12, 2023

The project is part of a larger effort to add about 5,700 beds by late 2025 or early 2026. By that point, UCSD would be able house more than 24,000 students, making it one of the largest residential universities in the country.

A rendering depicts UCSD’s planned Triton Center, which will include student health and academic resources, an alumni and welcome center and a 500-person event space.

(UC San Diego)

The new student union, called the Triton Center, will cost about $428 million to build and will provide UCSD with room for things such as student health and academic resources, an alumni and welcome center and a 500-person event space.

The complex will be a brief walk from the university’s emerging “front door,” which is composed of a Blue Line trolley station, the Design and Innovation Building, Epstein Family Amphitheater and Pepper Canyon West, a 1,300-bed residential center now under construction.

Pepper Canyon West will have buildings rising 22 and 23 stories tall, adding to the school’s growing skyline. ◆