GOING BIG: ULV Says ‘Top This’ with New Building Due to Break Ground, March 31

Dirt today, a domicile tomorrow.

Construction on a new mixed-use student housing development — the largest building ever to be built in La Verne — will break ground at D and Third streets on March 31, according to University of La Verne (ULV) officials and its architectural and development partners.

When completed in July 2012, the new $25 million, 103,000-square-foot building will add 378 student beds and about 8,300 square feet of ground-floor retail space for a new university bookstore. The unit layout includes a combination of single- and double-occupancy bedrooms and a living space. However, the majority of the 68 units are four-bedroom units serving six students. As students living in the new facility will be expected to take part in the university food services plan, kitchens will not be included in any of the units except those for the resident advisors.

KTGY Group, Inc., Architecture and Planning, is providing architectural design services for the project, which will be developed by Hanover Pacific, LLC

The architecture takes its cues from downtown La Verne and relies on the ground floor bookstore to serve as a continuation of the retail street frontage found further down “D” Street. “The pedestrian plaza space at the corner of ‘D’ Street and 2nd Street will help activate the campus edge and serve as a gateway marker for the university,” said David Senden, a principal with Irvine-based KTGY Group, Inc. and the lead designer on the project. “Internal to the site is a large resident courtyard that will serve student activities and be a backdoor entrance for students coming from the parking area.”

A sign of future times.

The new student housing facility will assist the university in accommodating the current needs of its student population as well as assist in the recruitment and retention of new students in the future. “Today’s students are informed and sophisticated consumers of ‘products’ and ‘services’ and enjoy, if not demand, a wide range of academic opportunities,” Senden added. “They will ultimately base their choice of academic institution on the ‘total experience;’ one that satisfies their financial, social, and environmental needs.”

The design creates inviting social spaces and a welcome hub for today’s students.

“This project will be an asset to ULV well into the future not only because it will bring new student housing to the campus but also because of KTGY’s design and attention to building function,” said Robert Y. Kim, executive managing director of Irvine-based Hanover Pacific, LLC. “Both the unit and building design encourages student interaction within the units but also among different floors with the use of shared common areas, differently programmed lounges and ample study areas on each floor.
“We feel that this development will help set a new standard for campus living at the University of La Verne,” added Kim.”While providing a safe learning environment that is so important to parents, it also gives the students the proximity to campus and the active social environment they crave and enriches their collegiate experience at ULV.”

The new mixed-use building comes at an important juncture in the University of La Verne’s history, with the announced retirement of Dr. Stephen Morgan, Ed.D, who has led the university since 1985, and the succession of Dr. Devorah Liberman, Ph.D., who will be the university’s first female president in the school’s 119-year history.

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