North District Development

The North District is a new 50-acre living-learning district that, when complete, will transform the residential life experience by adding 6,000 beds to the growing UCR campus by 2030. Consistent with the university’s Long Range Development Plan, UCR identified a low-density and functionally obsolete expanse of campus for this ambitious project.

Phase One of the project is a 1,500-bed upper division undergraduate apartment community. The project is organized into six massings fronting a large, open paseo that visually extends the Aberdeen Mall as a pedestrian-only public space with various gathering areas. The paseo is activated by the ground floor’s program elements which include classrooms, a small café, fitness center, resident study and social lounges, and the leasing and residence life office. The geometries of the various buildings create three character-defining outdoor courtyards, befitting the region’s high desert climate.

The LEED Gold project combines passive sustainable design strategies with innovative building systems. The project is all-electric; the first student housing project to be so on campus. Extensive shading studies informed the siting of the buildings to facilitate self-shading of the facades and courtyards over the course of the day. A landscape of drought tolerant and native plantings is minimally maintained by an efficient low-water irrigation system.

University University of California, Riverside

Location Riverside, CA

Building Size Phase One: 534,000 SF, 1,500 beds

Sustainability LEED Gold, All-Electric