The formal start of construction on a new residence hall and dining commons at Cal State San Bernardino will be celebrated with a groundbreaking ceremony at the site beginning at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29.
The ceremony will take place in the former university parking Lot E, near the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration and the Serrano Village residence halls. It will be hosted by the CSUSB Division of Student Affairs and the Department of Housing and Residential Education.
The California State University Board of Trustees granted its unanimous approval for the project in August.
At $95.8 million and 164,000 square feet, the project represents the single largest development project in CSUSB history. It is expected to be completed for the start of the 2018-19 academic year.
With 416 beds, the student housing development is the initial phase of a larger community that will be developed at CSUSB as enrollment grows. This residential community will eventually serve about 1,200 more students.
This phase will be targeted to meet the needs of entering first-year students and will be the first new housing community specifically designed to serve their needs since Serrano Village opened in 1972.
In addition to the new housing units for students, the community will have dedicated space for student advising and academic support, the Honors Program, two Faculty-in-Residence apartments, a community kitchen, multipurpose meeting rooms, and will be the administrative home of the university’s Department of Housing and Residential Education.
The new dining commons will be a two-level, multi-faceted campus dining facility. With an expected capacity of nearly 700 customers, the initial seating layout will be approximately 500. Two dining experiences are slated for this location.
The first will offer an all-you-care-to-eat dining hall featuring a range of dining cuisines, including a grill, sandwiches/salads, display cooking, and a number of international choices. Seating will be on multiple levels, including two enclosed outdoor locations, meeting rooms that can be reserved for groups and guests, and a faculty/staff collaboration dining room.
The second venue in the new dining commons will be a cash and carry operation, as well as an enhanced convenience store. Slated to be CSUSB’s first planned late-night dining location, it will offer sandwiches and grill-style cash options all day, providing an exciting place for the campus community to gather into the evening.
Parking spaces from the former Lot E have been transferred to the new Lot N off Campus Circle, just west of the College of Education. Reserved spaces for the disabled, service vehicles, faculty, and staff in the former Lot E have been relocated to neighboring Lot G.
As with all campus housing, the project will be funded through the rental rates of students living in the residence halls. No state general fund dollars are committed to this project.
For an electronic design image of the construction project, contact the CSUSB Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news@csusb.edu.
Contact CSUSB Facilities Planning, Design, and Construction at (909) 537-5136 with any questions about the construction impacts related to this project.
About California State University, San Bernardino
California State University, San Bernardino is a preeminent center of intellectual and cultural activity in Inland Southern California. Opened in 1965 and set at the foothills of the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains, the university serves more than 20,000 students each year and graduates about 4,000 students annually. CSUSB reflects the dynamic diversity of the region and has the most diverse student population of any university in the Inland Empire, and it has the second highest African American and Hispanic enrollments of all public universities in California. Eighty percent of those who graduate are the first in their families to do so.
For more information about Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.