September 21, 2007

Regents eye campus vision during Davis visit

By Dave Jones

The Board of Regents saw the UC Davis of today during the board's first meeting on the main campus since 1992, and the meeting also included a preview of the campus of tomorrow.

The preview came during a Committee on Grounds and Buildings meeting Sept. 18 in the Studio Theatre of the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef and Vice Chancellor John Meyer reported on the future look of the nearly 100-year-old Davis campus, with that "look" in the form of a new campus-produced video, titled "Building a Connected Campus," complete with three-dimensional computer-generated graphics.

Dozens of UC Davis administrators and staff members turned out to see the video, which received a warm reception from the regents. Committee Chair Joanne Corday Kozberg said: "This has been an absolute transformation" for the campus.

The video shows the alignment of the historic Quad and three new campus quads, or "neighborhoods." One of those is already built at the south entry, one is being developed in the Health Sciences District adjacent to the new Aggie Stadium and the third will be in the Life Sciences District near the Silo.

"We've put together an update on our design and facilities vision and how it relates to our academic plan," Meyer said in an interview with Dateline. The News Service produced the video in coordination with Meyer's unit, the Office of Resource Management and Planning.

In the video, Meyer explains: "In recent years, much of our activity has been trying to respond to the significant enrollment growth and growth in our research program. And I think we have done very well with our new facilities.

"However, in upcoming years our focus is going to change to renovation and redevelopment areas. What we're trying to do is really create places that enable memorable experiences."

This campus vision is centered at Shields Library, which suits University Librarian Marilyn Sharrow just fine.

"A university is a group of buildings surrounding a library, and without a great library you don't have a great university," Sharrow says in the video.

"And this is a great library, and it needs to be focused and highlighted and be in the center of campus."

From the library's front door, look to the north and you can see the tree-lined west edge of the Quad. Look to the south and you can see the tree-lined promenade leading to Mrak Hall, the campus's main administration building.

Were it not for the curved concrete walkway in front of Shields Library, the north-south path between the Quad and Mrak would be visually and physically connected in a straight line — and that is how Assistant Vice Chancellor Bob Segar, the chief campus planner, sees it in the future.

With a redesign of the library plaza, Segar says, the campus will feature "a three-block-long pedestrian mall" between the Quad and Mrak, running along the front of the library, with trees delineating both sides of the path.

Segar also describes a new path — a physical connection — running west between the library plaza and a new quad to be built on land now occupied by Surge Buildings I through IV, just west of the Silo.

This is in the area where the university has grouped its life sciences buildings, and the new quad would be a gathering place for students from various life sciences disciplines, Vanderhoef says in the video.

Similarly, the university has developed a quad for medical and veterinary medical students in the Health Sciences District west of La Rue Road.

And do not forget the south entry quad, which is already developed, bounded by the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, and the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. Still to come are a new Graduate School of Management, university conference center and hotel on the quad's east side, and a new art museum on the south side. The new Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science is not far away.

In the video, Segar notes how the campus vision is rooted in UC Davis' original framework: a handful of buildings around the Quad. Today the Quad is our "downtown," Segar says, a nexus for the student union, student services and Shields Library.

"We're returning to the strength of that plan," Segar says, referring to the new neighborhoods and connecting paths aligned with the original Quad.

"We're designing this whole framework to tie back to the Quad … really the defining character of the campus."

In other matters scheduled for the regents meeting, the board's Finance Committee was expected to review in closed session the proposed terms for a ground lease for the planned 75-room hotel at UC Davis' south entry.

The two-story hotel would be built behind the Graduate School of Management and university conference center. The GSM and conference center would face the east side of the south entry quad, across from the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

The campus previously announced that it had selected University Hospitality Group to build and run the hotel. The hotel group is led by Ashok Patel, who owns the Aggie Inn, Palm Court and University Park Inn in Davis.

Meyer said the proposed business terms are confidential for now, pending regents' approval. He revealed, however, that University Hospitality Group had forged an agreement under which the new hotel would be affiliated with the Hyatt Place chain.

The Hyatt Place Web site describes the chain as "a new kind of hotel that puts style, innovation and 'The Hyatt Touch' within everyone's reach." The Web site declares that 100 Hyatt Place hotels will be open across the United States by the end of 2007.

The planned site of the UC Davis hotel would put its guests just a short walk from the new conference center and its restaurant.

As for the GSM and conference center, the campus is now reviewing bids from three design-and-build partnerships that are vying for the project.

The Board of Regents previously approved a $34.5 million financing plan for the GSM and conference center. The sum comprises $3 million in gifts and $31.5 million in borrowed funds.

The GSM would comprise about 23,000 assignable square feet in three stories. Officials say the GSM's existing home, 15,500 square feet in a two-story building known as AOB4 on the campus's east side, is overcrowded and does not allow for enrollment growth. When the GSM moves out, AOB4 is due to become the new home of the School of Education.

The conference center would comprise 11,200 square feet of meeting and office space, plus 7,300 square feet for the restaurant.

Construction is expected to begin around the first of the year, with completion set for the summer of 2009. The hotel could be built even sooner, Meyer said.