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

  • Elevating Campus Maintenance: How Power Wash Drones are Transforming Educational Facilities

    As today’s campuses grow larger and more architecturally complex, keeping exteriors clean, safe, and inviting has never been tougher. Facilities leaders are under constant pressure to stretch budgets, meet safety standards, and support sustainability goals—all while tackling the stubborn challenge of exterior cleaning.

  • Tennessee State University Gains Approval for New Engineering Facility

    Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tenn., recently announced that it has received approval from the Tennessee State Building Commission to build a new engineering building on campus, according to a university news release. The 70,000-square-foot, $50-million facility will play home to the university’s engineering programs and the Applied & Industrial Technology program.

  • Key Considerations for Office-to-Higher-Education Facility Conversions

    Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, office-to-alternative-use conversions have become a recurring subject of urban development discourse. Office utilization rates across major U.S. cities remain below 50%, with vacancy rates exceeding 27% in San Francisco and 16% in New York. Higher education facilities present programmatic and spatial use cases that align readily with the typical characteristics of commercial office buildings.

  • KI Wall Demonstrates New Solutions at NeoCon 2025

    KI Wall attended NeoCon 2025 in Chicago, Ill., last month to showcase its new architectural wall systems and collaborations, according to a news release. Its customizable, design-forward wall solutions are intended to support creativity in work, education, and healthcare environments.

Digital Edition