Officials at San Francisco State University (SFSU) recently conducted a groundbreaking ceremony for West Campus Green (WCG), an upcoming affordable housing project. The State of California’s Affordable Student Housing grant program provided a $116.3 million award to cover a significant portion of the $179 million buildout budget. This program aims to reduce the costs of public student housing across the state.
The WCG project includes two adjacent structures. One is a six-story residence hall spanning 120,000 square feet, while the other is a three-story building covering 50,000 square feet. The latter will accommodate the Gator Health Center and a dining commons. The architects designed the residence hall based on the concept of “pods,” where each pod consists of 12 rooms shared by three students. These pods have shared bathrooms and study spaces. The WCG will also offer additional amenities, such as psychological counseling services and a wellness center. Its primary purpose is to provide housing for 750 first-year SFSU students.
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Details and Comments on the West Campus Green Project at SFSU
To make space for the WCG project, SFSU demolished an older, abandoned structure after acquiring the property from the San Francisco Unified School District in 2012. The ongoing construction work is expected to be completed by the fall of 2024. Throughout the construction process, the campus facilities will remain open, and a temporary fence has been erected around the construction site.
The design-build team, consisting of McCarthy and EHDD, faces the challenge of meeting an ambitious deadline to have students in the housing by the 2024 academic year. Vice President Jack Carter of McCarthy expressed that the project has been divided into different structures to expedite the construction process and meet the tight schedule. This approach allows the housing building to progress on its own timeline while simultaneously addressing the needs of the dining and health center, ensuring an efficient design process.
