UC Merced tops off newest construction

UC Merced held a ceremony on Tuesday to celebrate the construction of its newest building, as well as mark a milestone in the campus’s first phase of development.

Scores of the university’s faculty, staff and students turned out for the “topping” ceremony of the $54 million Classroom and Office Building 2, what will be a 77,000-square-foot structure featuring the newest in educational technology.

Those in attendance signed the final steel girder before it was raised and attached to the top of the building’s frame.

Chancellor Dorothy Leland said the building, which is supposed to open in April 2016, will add much needed space to the growing campus. The building is also the final structure to be built during UC Merced’s first phase of development.

“We’re just grateful, given economic circumstances in the state, that we got this building,” Leland said.

More buildings will be added to the campus after it completes its 2020 Project designs, which will allow UC Merced to accommodate 10,000 students by 2020. Officials expect to pick a development team by the end of 2015 to move forward with those designs.

Classroom and Office Building 2 will have four lecture halls with seating that ranges from 90 to 210. It is expected to be the headquarters for the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, though it will be used by other areas of education, according to Mark Aldenderfer, dean of the school.

He said the the newest building will have features unlike other completed structures, including space for interdisciplinary teaching and learning. One highlight of the building is the Computer-Assisted Virtual Environment, or CAVE. “Basically, it’s a way to visualize a three-dimensional environment,” he said.

The CAVE could be useful for any discipline needing to study a subject not easily seen, such as a molecule.

Also unique to the building will be “technology-enabled active learning,” a collaborative learning environment that allows students to work in small groups. The rooms will have the “computing power” necessary for that kind of learning as well as easily movable furniture, he said.

“These (instruction) movements have been coming on for the last decade or so,” Aldenderfer said. “We’re now being able to take advantage of that here with the construction of this building.”

The building will also have laboratories, offices and a courtyard.

UC Merced has a number of sustainability goals for campus buildings, including the newest addition. It is expected to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum certification through the U.S. Green Building Council.

The crowd gathered near the steel girder on Tuesday took photos and cheered as workers fastened it to the frame.

One student, 22-year-old Jim Stinecipher, said he was excited about the potential to take classes in the building once it opens. The environmental systems doctoral student from Fresno said the campus can sometimes feel cramped and in need of space.

“I think that as we get more students that need is going to be even more pressing,” he said.

This story was originally published December 9, 2014 at 5:05 PM with the headline "UC Merced tops off newest construction."