Officials at San Francisco State University (SFSU) have held a groundbreaking ceremony for West Campus Green, a new affordable housing project. The $116.3 million award from the State of California’s Affordable Student Housing grant program, which aims to lower the cost of public student housing across the Golden State, will considerably cover the $179 million buildout budget.
The WCG consists of two adjacent structures, one of which is a 120,000-square-foot, six-storey residence hall, and the other of which is a 50,000-square-foot, three-story building that will house the Gator Health Center and a dining commons.
The architecture of the residences is based on the idea of “pods,” where 12 rooms with three students each would share bathrooms and study spaces. The WCG will offer many other amenities like psychological counselling services and a wellness centre in addition to housing 750 first-year SFSU students.
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Details & Comments on the West Campus Green project at SFSU
In order to make room for the WCG, SFSU demolished an older, abandoned structure after they acquired the property from the San Francisco Unified School District in 2012. The current work, which is projected to be finished by the fall of 2024, is being done with the campus facilities remaining open while a temporary fence has been put up around the construction site.
A somewhat ambitious deadline to get “heads into beds” for the 2024 academic year is only one of the difficulties the design-build team of McCarthy and EHDD is working to solve.
“We chose to divide the project into different structures in order to achieve this short schedule. While concurrently allocating time and resources to address the needs of the dining and health centre, enables the housing building to take off on its own timetable, go through an effective design process, and get into the ground more quickly, according to McCarthy vice president Jack Carter.
