At long last, students move into De Neve Plaza
By Daily Bruin Staff
Sept. 24, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Most of
the De Neve Plaza housing complex, located in front of Dykstra
Hall, will open this quarter after three years of construction.
By David King
Daily Bruin Contributor
Three years, several delays, and more than $51 million later,
students now have the opportunity to reside in the
partially-completed De Neve Plaza.
The four perimeter residential buildings ““ buildings C,D,E
and F ““ are expected to open their doors to residents Sept.
23.
“We’ve made housing assignments, and we’re
currently anticipating four of the buildings will be in operation
by the time school rolls around,” said Michael Foraker,
director of housing.
According to Foraker, approximately 900 students will be living
in De Neve Plaza this school year, with each building containing
more than 100 rooms.
Comparable to Sunset Village in design, De Neve Plaza residents
will pay similar costs, ranging from $8,049 to $9,389 per school
year, depending on the number of room occupants and meal plan.
De Neve Plaza rooms, unlike highrise residence halls, feature a
private bathroom in each room, as well as individual air
conditioning and heating systems. They are 240 square feet in size
““ 20 percent larger than Sunset Village rooms.
 MINDY ROSS/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Rooms in De Neve
Plaza, like the one shown here, feature their own bathrooms, air
conditioning and heaters. Students are scheduled to begin moving in
to the partially-completed residence hall this fall. Brad Erickson,
director of Campus Service Enterprises and De Neve Plaza project
manager, said student input was a crucial part of the planning
stages.
“De Neve Plaza represents the latest and greatest of
understanding for what works best for students at UCLA,”
Erickson said.
With the expected date of completion of the podium building
““ which includes a dining hall ““ set for Spring 2001,
De Neve Plaza will eventually house a total of 1,258 students in
614 double rooms.
But Erickson said converting some units into triple rooms
remains a possibility as demand for on-campus housing continue to
grow.
The project, whose original purpose was to address issues of
overcrowded housing before anyone even knew of Tidal Wave II, will
help accommodate future Bruins, Foraker said.
Tidal Wave II is the phenomenon where an influx of college
students are projected to surge onto California campuses by
2010.
Though plans for increased housing date back to 1988, the De
Neve project unofficially began in May 1997 when the UC Regents
approved financing for the construction. Designs for the plaza were
completed in June of that year, with the ground breaking ceremony
taking place Oct. 1, 1997.
The original completion date for the $51 million project was set
for fall 1999, but several problems ““ which Erickson declined
to comment on ““ pushed the date back considerably.
“It’s had its challenges, but every project has
challenges,” Erickson said.
A few months into construction, the heavy rains of El Niño
and resulting mud slides significantly delayed progress.
The project was also temporarily delayed when a tractor-trailer
struck and killed 19-year-old construction worker Jason Drass near
Dykstra Hall on Aug. 15, 1998.
Other delays included problems with subcontractors and a major
project redesign to accommodate a high-voltage power line running
under one of the buildings.
In preparation for the opening,the housing office hired resident
assistants to move in immediately upon completion of the plaza. But
the students were eventually given other positions as construction
continued throughout the 1999-2000 school year.
Before construction began, the area was originally the site of
Dykstra Hall’s commons building, which included a dining
hall, mailboxes, and a computer lab. The area also featured several
basketball courts.
Approximately 217 trees were cleared for construction of the
plaza, with assurances from officials that they would be replaced
with new trees, according to Tova Lelah, campus environmental
planner.
With De Neve Plaza located off Gayley Avenue, the area around
the site was directly affected by the building process. In a June
1999 Daily Bruin article, residents complained they lost 40 parking
spaces on Gayley to construction vehicles entering the site.
University officials said eliminating the spaces was necessary
for safety reasons and to reduce liability for the construction
crews.
Prior to the start of construction, a Westwood community meeting
raised several concerns, printed in a Daily Bruin article April 18,
1997, regarding the proposed new dormitory.
“The project is massive, and it affects us
tremendously,” said Wolfgang Vieths, of the Northwest Village
Residents Association. “It will practically destroy at least
half of the buffer zone between us and the campus.”
Another Westwood resident, Andrew Milder, concurred.
“What a greedy, bad neighbor UCLA has been,” Milder
said.
In response to noise complaints from Gayley and Dykstra Hall
residents, housing officials set up a construction hotline to
address concerns.
To compensate impacted Dykstra Hall residents, representatives
from the housing administration, Office of Residential Life, and
Dining Services formed a mitigation committee.
The committee sought to alleviate construction inconveniences by
offering certain compensations to residents.
These compensations included free microfridges, a special
catered dinner once every quarter, and monthly snacks delivered to
residents. First-year residents in Dykstra were also given priority
in housing assignments for the following year.
Despite this, many students still complained about the nearby
construction.
“Sometimes when they are backing up the vehicles, the
beeping noises wake me up in the morning,” Naomi Matsumi,
then a first-year political science student, told The Bruin on
March 3, 1999.
Because of student complaints, housing officials restricted
construction time from 8 am to 5 pm for most of the project. Later,
in spring 1999, flood lights brought onto the site extended
construction time from 7 am to 7 pm.
During this period, some construction crews worked nine to 10
hours a day for six days a week.
And with this past weekend’s anticipated moving in of
residents, the long hours may have finally paid off.
While the opening of Phase One and eventually Phase Two of De
Neve Plaza will alleviate some overcrowding within on-campus
housing, the project will most likely not be the last one.
Foraker said a new dorm in the area of the Hitch Suites is
currently being discussed.
