Plans for a 23-story UC Berkeley Dorm are expected to be discussed this Wednesday in a meeting with the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee for the Regents of the University of California. The project will bring 1,625 beds and a new dining hall to 2200 Bancroft Way in Southside, Berkeley. Construction is estimated to start as early as next year and cost nearly half a billion dollars.
Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing pedestrian view, rendering by KieranTimberlake
Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing aerial view, rendering by KieranTimberlake
The 276-foot tall tower is expected to yield around 400,000 square feet, including 312,000 square feet for the 583-unit residential hall above the 41,000 square-foot dining hall. Unit types will vary with 508 triples, 21 doubles, 21 singles, 28 units for residence advisors, and five staff apartments.
The overall capacity will allow for 1,625 beds, or approximately 3.5% of the school’s total enrollment this year. The development will be a significant step in increasing the number of students housed by the university. Reporting last week by Hannah Kanik for the San Francisco Business Times notes that UC Berkeley provides housing for just under a quarter of its student body, the lowest of any campus in the UC System.
Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing podium base, rendering by KieranTimberlake
Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing, rendering by KieranTimberlake
Student amenities will include various social and study spaces, a fitness center, laundry, music rooms, presentation rooms, and a communal kitchen. The project will include 700 square feet for bicycle parking and no capacity for vehicular parking.
KieranTimberlake is the project architect. The design includes an L-shaped tower rising ten stories tall over Durant Avenue and 23 stories on Bancroft Way. 263 feet. The tower will be wrapped with glass fiber-reinforced concrete panels, while the podium will be established with granite.
Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing along Durant Avenue, elevation by KieranTimberlake
2200 Bancroft Way, image via Google Satellites
The 0.8-acre property is located along Fulton Street between Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue. The site is just on the southwest corner of the university campus, a block from Shattuck Avenue, and three blocks from the Telegraph Avenue thoroughfare.
Groundbreaking is expected to occur in January 2026, with construction lasting around two years and eight month, in the late summer of 2028, potentially in time for the 2028/2029 academic year. The overall cost is estimated to be around $443.5 million, with housing to cost around $376.5 million and the dining facilities to cost an additional $66.9 million.
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Good work, Berkeley. We need a dozen more of these to fix the student housing shortage. Back when I attended Cal, I knew fellow students who were borderline homeless, holding on to precarious arrangements such as continuing to share a bedroom with their ex-partner. It’s surely gotten much worse in the last decade.
Yes for more housing. But 700 sq feet of bicycle parking is ridiculous. If only 10% of the students own bicycles they will each get 4 square feet. So there will be lots of bikes chained to railings etc. and lots of stolen bikes.
Most students don’t own bicycles. Many are pedestrian-only due to safety concerns. Of those who have two-wheelers, most these days are electric scooters parked and charged at home.
Generally, “secure” bike parking areas in large buildings just serve as Petri dishes for extra-efficient theft.
It’s unfortunate that UC Berkeley, with its famed school of architecture, can’t seem to design interesting, attractive dorms and apartments. (See the blocky units newly opened in Albany Village, in addition to this new monster.) Surely there are better-looking, more creative designs for student housing?
Of course there are better designs. But between the cost/budget for such a thing as well as the committee of “experts” that all have something to add (or remove) this is what you get.
remove some of the outdated requirements like setbacks, elevator minimum size restrictions, architectural standards, antiquated fire safety rules, lenghty review and permitting, free up budget and then let the architects have fun. That’s when well get interesting buildings again.
Students living in their cars, commuting hours each day, some even commuting from SoCal – and you are worried about how the building looks?
Let’s leave the fancy ugly sculptural architecture to Beijing and Dubai. I want subdued, human-scaled designs here in Berkeley. The most livable cities like Paris and Barcelona feature endless masses of uninteresting buildings.
I think the building looks attractive in the renderings.
Honestly beautiful!