The first phase of the initiative, dubbed San Benito, is expected to break ground in 2025, pending approval by the University of California Board of Regents this May. It will consist of seven residence halls, each rising six-to-eight stories, located in the northwest corner of the campus, astride UCSB’s football and baseballs stadiums. When completed, the new buildings will accommodate 2,140 students by the fall 2027 semester if the timeline holds. The approximately five-acre site repurposes grounds formerly used for facilities management, and the design team will navigate its 20-foot variance in grade by inserting a two-story plinth with a cascading promenade to house program and facilitate student circulation, all while affording views of the nearby Santa Ynez Mountains.

In a statement, Mithun principal Damian Possidente noted that “San Benito will provide critically needed affordable, apartment-style housing and an amenity-rich program with a healthy market at the heart—creating a vibrant residential community on a distinctive part of the UCSB campus.”

The residence halls will be arranged on an east-west axis to reduce solar heat gain and to take advantage of prevailing ocean-borne winds for passive cooling. The massing and positioning of the halls will be pinched at several points to further facilitate airflow. As SOM design partner Olin McKenzie told RECORD, this strategy will also create “parenthetical courtyards” that encourage student gathering and activities. These public-facing features of the new complex will be supplemented by landscaping and paths that weave into the wetlands of the nearby Goleta Slough State Marine Conservation Area.

The second phase of the SOM and Mithun collaboration will include an approximately 1,400-bed residence hall on the southeast end of the UCSB campus. That undertaking is slated to enter the planning and concept design phase this summer, and, if all goes well, open by 2029.