In support of the proposed Kresge College renewal, UC Santa Cruz will host a public information session and begin drafting an environmental impact report.
On April 4 the campus issued a Notice of Preparation to request input regarding the scope and content of the draft environmental impact report. An information and scoping session will be held from 5–7 p.m. on April 17 at the Kresge College Town Hall. The meeting is open to the public.
The Kresge College renewal project will be composed of new construction, renovation, and selective removal of buildings. The project will expand the college’s living-learning environment with additional space for residential, academic, and student support programs while addressing issues of accessibility, code compliance, and sustainability throughout the site
The project will increase housing for students, adding between 175 and 225 student beds to the approximately 365 currently provided within the college. New construction will increase the total College size from 133,000 to 200,000 gross square feet.
Fourteen buildings will be renovated, in some cases rehabilitating residential buildings as academic and student support spaces. In order to provide an accessible route through the college, recycled water storage, larger gathering spaces to anchor the college communities, and expanded program space, nine existing buildings—two of which were not part of the original college design—would be removed. Four buildings will be newly constructed, including an academic building, two or three residential buildings for first-year students, and a student assembly space.
One of the objectives of the project is to embrace the important legacy of the site by retaining the character-defining site organization and landscape features and the majority of existing buildings while amplifying the campus’ relationship to the natural environment by improving the natural landscape and bringing existing buildings up to higher standards of sustainability.
