UCLA Moves Forward with 19-story Student Housing Project

UCLA is moving forward with plans for another high-rise dorm alongside its Westwood campus. The university recently acquired the property at 901 Levering Terrace, a site currently occupied by five apartment buildings with 42 units. A new environmental study shows those buildings would be demolished to make way for a 19-story, roughly 310,000-square-foot tower with 148 apartments. With a mix of one-, two-, three-, and mostly four-bedroom units, the project is designed to house up to 1,150 students.

Designed by Mithun, the tower would rise about 238 feet in a contemporary style, featuring a cross-shaped footprint with exterior courtyards and terrace decks at street level and above the second floor. Proposed materials include concrete, fiber-cement panels, metal, stucco, porcelain or stone, and glass. Interior plans call for laundry rooms, offices, a fitness area, common rooms, and study lounges. The project does not include on-site parking.

Construction could begin as early as 2026 and wrap up by 2030, according to the study. Earlier this year, the UC Board of Regents approved $8.75 million to support the project’s planning phase.

The Levering Terrace development is one of several major student housing projects UCLA has taken on in recent years, including the 10-story Levering Place apartments next door and a 17-story tower just east of the site. Another building for more than 500 students is now underway along Gayley Avenue to the north.

Private developers are active in the area as well. M&A Real Estate Partners is building apartments on Glenrock Avenue, Landmark Properties is finishing a building on Strathmore Drive and planning a 12-story tower on Landfair Avenue, and Los Angeles-based Uncommon has proposed its own 12-story project on Strathmore.

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