California Student Complex on Target for 2021 Completion

By Lisa Kopochinski

DAVIS, Calif.—With a completion date slated for July 2021, construction continues on the Emerson Hall redevelopment project at University of California, Davis.

DPR Construction is the general contractor on this $109 million design-build project that began in mid-2019 with architecture firm HKS, Inc. Included is a new, three-building, ground-up student housing complex with a bed count between 749 to 809 beds.

The bedrooms will have double and triple room arrangements and include bathrooms. The three buildings will also include common rooms, residence assistant apartments, lounges, recreation rooms, an Advising Center, community space, a community kitchen, music room, maintenance shops and laundry facilities.

Features of Emerson Hall include double-occupancy rooms. All rooms are part of a “suite” configuration, which are similar to full apartments, but without a kitchen. The suites are arranged off the corridor and open into a foyer.

Room dimensions are approximately 220 square feet. Two-bedroom (4 occupant) suites have one bathroom; and three-bedroom (6 occupant) suites have 2 bathrooms. Emerson Hall will have two laundry rooms; the smaller laundry room has 6 washing machines and 6 dryers while the larger has 16 washing machines and 16 dryers.

DPR Construction has also partnered with Digital Building Components on this project to deliver non-combustible, light gauge cold-formed, load-bearing structures. The use of DBC has allowed the team to change the buildings from Type V/III wood-framed construction to a Type II steel-framed building. This allows the three buildings to be connected, improving egress and allowing social balconies between the buildings.

This project is required to be LEED Silver certified, but is targeting for LEED Gold.