Looming over the residential suites, visible from the hillside near the Bronco Student Center and acting as nice industrial accents to photos of the campus, the new residence halls are a consistent reminder of the changes coming to Cal Poly Pomona.
Announced in Feb. 2015 and estimated to be complete by fall 2020, the new residence halls will have 980 beds, will be eight stories tall and will be located at the center of campus near the Student Services Building. The new buildings will replace the old ones, which were built on the San Jose Fault line.
Director of Business Services for the Housing Department, Todd London, said the project was supposed to be completed by fall 2019, but delays in fire marshal safety inspections moved the estimated date of completion to fall 2020.
“The inspections were scheduled around the time the wildfires happened, so, of course, the approvals from the fire marshal were put on hold,” London said.
London said the two buildings will have single, double and triple housing arrangements and include 400 new parking spaces around the area.
They will also include a computer room, community kitchen and a recreational room for students to hold meetings or work on projects. Another floor will have two wings with five gender inclusive bathrooms, 13 double rooms, two triple rooms and two single rooms.
Students who don’t want to study in their rooms will also have access to one large community room in each wing, capable of holding 35 people, and one small community room capable of holding 14 people. There will also be small and large study spaces for groups of two to six residents located in each wing.
The buildings have yet to be named, but a contest was held in which students submitted suggestions. London said he estimates President Soraya Coley will reveal the winners within the next 60 days or so.
The housing project came with a cost of $185 million and a displacement of the campus’ Arabian horses.
Dan Johnson, the director of facilities planning, design and management from the Division of Administrative Affairs said the housing project removed 4 to 5 acres of pasture from the horses, but all the displaced horses have been moved to new pastures. Johnson said the horses will be cared for and updates to the Arabian Horse Center are included in the campus master plan.
First-year accounting major Ashley Tang currently lives in the residence halls but is thinking of moving into the new buildings once they’re completed. Tang doesn’t have a car, so her only choices are to live on campus or at the University Village.
“I think living in the new buildings would be cool, but I’m worried about the price, Tang said. “It’s convenient to live on campus though, and it’s a good experience away from home.”