The Student Community Center project was a student-based initiative that called for recasting the existing facilities at Lower Sproul Plaza into a revitalized and state-of-the-art facility combining both new construction and adaptive reuse strategies. The project design is rooted in sustainable practices and achieved LEED Gold certification. The project encompasses a site area of approximately 184,000 sf and includes a replacement to the existing Eshleman Hall, renovations and additions to the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, the plaza deck itself, and minor renovations to Cesar Chavez Student Center and Anthony Hall.
The proposed scheme called for a series of careful interventions combined with the adaptive reuse of approximately 200,000 sf of existing buildings and approximately 90,000 sf of new construction. The existing 8-story Eshleman Hall was in poor seismic condition and was replaced with a lower, more porous and transparent 6-story building that has built-in flexibility for the sharing of spaces between various student organizations. The MLK Student Union was transformed on its west and south sides from a solid mass to a series of semi-transparent glass additions housing retail and dining spaces, presenting an active and open public face to Lower Sproul Plaza and the adjacent urban streetscape of Bancroft Way.
Project responsibilities involved collaboration with the project team on the architectural design of Eshleman Hall, and Revit modeling, renderings, client presentations, the Design Development and Construction Documents packages.
Awards and Publications
AIA East Bay Berkeley Design Advocates Award, 2017
“Lower Sproul Redevelopment”, Architectural Record (November 2015).
Completed while on co-op assignment at Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, 2012
Client: University of California
Project Principal: Mario Violich
Project Manager: Richard Destin
Project Architect: Clay Holden
Renderings: Shimahara Illustration
Photography: Bruce Damonte / Architectural Record