UCLA Adds More Student Housing to Construction Pipeline

The University of California, Los Angeles is adding another high-rise dorm building next to its campus in Westwood.

UCLA is planning to build a 19-story, 310,000-square-foot building with 148 units at 901 Levering Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The project is expected to house up to 1,150 students.

The development site has five buildings with 42 units, which the university acquired last year. The University of California Board of Regents recently approved nearly $8.8 million to support the project’s planning.

The buildings would be razed to make way for the dorms, which would consist of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom layouts, with the four-bedroom configurations making up a large chunk of the units. No on-site parking is proposed.

Mithun’s design for the complex includes courtyards and terrace decks at street level and above the second floor. Amenities would include laundry facilities, offices, a fitness area, common rooms and study lounges.

Work on the project could start as early as next year and be completed by 2030.

It would be the university’s latest student housing construction in recent years. Those include the adjacent 10-story Levering Place apartments, at 885 Levering Avenue, and a 17-story tower a block over, at 900 Weyburn Place.

It is in construction with another residential building for 500 students at 565 Gayley Avenue.

Private developers are also in on the building rush around the Westwood campus.

M&A Real Estate Partners is building apartments at 535 Glenrock Avenue. Landmark Properties is nearing completion on an apartment building at 10915 Strathmore Drive and also has plans for a bigger 12-story building at 505 Landfair Avenue. And Los Angeles-based Uncommon Developers is looking to build a 12-story tower at 11207 Strathmore Drive.

A federal report recently caught UCLA paying pennies on the dollar to market rate costs to lease prime West Los Angeles land owned by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

— Chris Malone Méndez