California College of the Arts Breaks Ground on New On-Campus Student Housing

In February, California College of the Arts (CCA) broke ground on new student housing in San Francisco. Designed by leading architecture firm Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects Inc., the five-story building will provide much-needed, below-market-rate housing for more than 500 students—roughly 25 percent of CCA’s student body—upon its completion in 2020. The 280 rooms are CCA’s first on-campus housing in San Francisco and are positioned at the center of the school’s expanding campus.

CCA Hooper Student Housing

The building will primarily provide housing to the school’s first- and second-year students. It will include single- and multiple-occupancy units and more than 12,000 square feet of common areas, along with social and study spaces. An inviting, sunlit café on the ground floor of the building will be surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

At the ground level, the facility includes 10,000+ additional square feet of outdoor space with landscaped, interconnected courtyards. The building also features a 400-square-foot outdoor deck on the fifth floor. The sidewalk outside the building will expand to accommodate an increase in foot traffic and landscaping. Crosswalks will be added, giving the neighborhood a more residential feel.

Featured

  • Montclair State University Starts Construction on $120M STEM Building

    Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., recently broke ground on a new $120-million Interdisciplinary Science Building, according to university news. The university partnered with HoK Architects for the project’s design, and it’s scheduled to open in time for the 2028–29 academic year.

  • Classical building columns display digital data streams

    The Campus Nervous System: Why Facilities Risk Is Now a Leadership Issue in Higher Education

    Facility performance now intersects with safety, compliance, on-campus experience, institutional reputation, and financial resilience. That places it firmly on the leadership agenda.

  • Q&A: How to Prevent Kitchen Grease Fires in Commercial Kitchens

    School cafeterias and university dining halls serve thousands of meals daily, relying on high-heat equipment like fryers, grills, and ovens. While these operations keep students fed, they also generate significant grease-laden vapors. Without proper controls, this grease becomes a silent fire threat. As a certified exhaust cleaning specialist and business coach who has helped hundreds of institutional facilities achieve NFPA 96 compliance, I emphasize that proactive grease management isn’t optional; it’s a core fire/life safety practice.

  • UT-San Antonio Begins Residence Hall Renovations

    The University of Texas at San Antonio recently began a $6-million renovation project to one of its residence halls, according to a news release. Originally completed in 1986, Chisolm Hall measures in at 120,860 square feet and is the oldest and largest residence hall on campus.