Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

University of Hawaii at Mānoa Begins Construction on Student Housing Facility

  • By Matt Jones
  • 10/26/23

The University of Hawaii at Mānoa in Honolulu, Hawaii, recently completed the first phase of construction on a new housing facility for graduate students, according to a university news release. Groundbreaking for the Residences for Graduate Students took place on Oct. 4, and the project will cost an estimated $170 million.

The facility will consist of two buildings, 18 stories and 12 stories, and house more than 550 graduate students, their families, and junior faculty members. The space will also include amenities like study rooms, a café retail space, a childcare facility, and more, the news release reports. The facility is scheduled to open its doors in fall 2025.

“Our graduate students here at Mānoa, like every other major research university, perform a lot of the actual work behind the discoveries that we make and push out to good use in the community,” said Michael Bruno, UH Mānoa Provost, at the groundbreaking ceremony. “This project, for the first time, will give them a residence on campus so that they can become more integrated into our campus community and feel like they are a really valued member of our community.”

The project is the second major public-private partnership (P3) on the university’s campus. UH Mānoa partnered with Greystar Real Estate Partners, which is developing and managing the property. Greystar also selected Swinerton Builders for the project’s construction.

“In Hawaii, we hear a lot of rhetoric about P3s,” said Kalbert Young, UH Vice President for Budget and Finance/CFO. “I have heard a lot of politicians, government officials, business leaders, talk about the need for P3s in Hawaii literally for decades, and yet, I am challenged to think of any other project that is a true bonafide P3. And us here today, I think we can take a sense of pride in recognizing, we are talking about groundbreaking on the second public-private partnership at the University of Hawaii in less than three years.”

The university’s first P3 project, the Residences for Innovative Student Entrepreneurs (RISE), opened to students in August 2023.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Arlington High School

    Arlington High School

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. Arlington High School has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Grand Prize award in the category of New Construction.

  • Texas Recruitment

    Texas Recruitment

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The University of Texas at Austin's Texas Recruitment has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Grand Prize award in the category of Renovation.

  • Higher Ed is Betting on New Buildings While Quietly Undermining Their Campuses — Here’s Why

    In this climate, the owner’s representative has changed from a delivery-focused advisor to a strategic campus partner. Institutions are increasingly relying on owner’s reps not just to manage, cope, schedule, and budget, but also help evaluate whether a project should proceed at all.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.