A team consisting of HKS Architects, Safdie Rabines Architects, and landscape architects OJB was recently selected by the University of California, San Diego to design the university’s new Living and Learning Neighborhood at North Torrey Pines, a forthcoming campus expansion modeled after traditional mixed-use urban forms.

The project will provide housing for 2,000 undergraduate students as well as new educational spaces and administrative offices, among other uses.

The campus extension will consist of seven new structures ranging between two and ten stories in height. Those new buildings, according to renderings released for the project, will feature blocky, articulated massing with various building geometries clad in traditional materials, including brick and wood panels. A pair of the structures will be 10-stories tall and joined at the midsection by a series of multi-level skybridges. Other structures will be composed of similarly hybridized masses, with traditional housing blocks stacked above office and educational podium structures. The buildings feature a relatively high ratio of exterior glazing, with large swaths of glass curtain walls and punched openings populating each expanse. The buildings will also feature multi-story cutouts and loggia spaces along their facades.

Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, SOM, Kevin Daly Architects, and Kieran Timberlake are currently at work on a multi-phase housing expansion at California State University, Santa Barbara while Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects are working to overhaul and expand the Moore Turnbull Page-designed Kresge College housing complex at University of California, Santa Cruz. University of California, Davis is also planning a large-scale campus expansion.

The project at UC San Diego is currently preparing to enter construction this summer and is expected to be completed sometime in 2020.