What

UC Davis will celebrate the groundbreaking for a large lecture hall — its first significant new classroom space in a decade — to help meet enrollment growth. The major part of a $22 million project, the hall will accommodate up to 600 students and offer state-of-the art flexibility for how students and faculty can use the facility.

It is expected to be LEED gold certified and zero-net energy ready when it opens for classes in winter 2018.

When

            Friday, June 3

            9:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

            A reception will follow the program.

Where

Davis campus construction site, 205 California Ave.

Between Kleiber Hall and Storer Mall drives

Interactive map

Who

Speakers include:

• Ken Burtis, acting provost of UC Davis
• Ralph Hexter, acting chancellor of UC Davis
• Clayton Halliday, associate vice chancellor for Design and Construction Management at UC Davis
• Alex Lee, president of the Associated Students of UC Davis and a third-year student majoring in political science and communications
• Liz Applegate, senior lecturer in the Department of Nutrition

Visuals

• the building site itself
• turning of the soil first by the speakers and then by others
• interior furniture on display
• external rendering

Background

The 16,365 square-foot lecture hall will help meet the need for additional instructional facilities envisioned in the plan to grow enrollment under the campus's 2020 Initiative. Campus leaders expect the new space will help reduce course waitlists and the time it takes for students to get the classes they need to earn their degrees in a timely way.

Features will include tables and swivel chairs for interaction during class, an outdoor plaza shaded by several trees and a food kiosk.

The building is expected to be gold certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program of the U.S. Green Building Council. It will also be poised to produce more energy than it uses: It will be ready for the installation of solar thermal panels to support a hot-water loop system being considered.

The building was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, associated architect, as well, for the UC Davis Jan and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art currently under construction and set to open in November. General contractor bids for the lecture hall are now being reviewed.

UC Davis is adding several new facilities. Scheduled to open this year are the Ann E. Pitzer Center recital hall and classroom. The bookstore space in the renovated Memorial Union will open shortly, with the rest of the refurbished union opening in the fall.

The new International Center, which will have classroom and meeting space, and the Veterinary Medicine Student Services and Administration Center are near completion. Now in the design phase is the project to renovate Walker Hall for a new Graduate Student Center, also with additional classroom capacity.

Under the 2020 Initiative, total undergraduate enrollment — as averaged over three academic quarters — would increase from about 23,844 in 2011-12 to 28,850 by the end of the decade.

Directions and Parking

From Interstate 80, take Highway 113 north and exit at Hutchison Drive. Turn right or east on to Hutchison Drive. Go through two stop lights and cross La Rue Road. At the third, turn left to enter the Pavilion Parking Structure. Then walk east along Hutchison Drive and turn left or north at California Avenue.

TV trucks may continue along Hutchison Drive and check in with the gate attendant to enter the core campus. Use the traffic circle to turn left onto California Avenue. Park along the west curb of California Avenue just north of the event's seating area. Please note: UC Davis does not admit vehicles to the core campus between 8:50 a.m. and 9 a.m. when many students are moving between classes.