Campus of The University of California, Irvine - Notable Facilities

Notable Facilities

UC Irvine has a number of specialized on-campus facilities that support its educational and cultural mission. For instance, UCI hosts the modern Arnold and Mabel Beckman Conference Center, which is made available for events and lectures and is maintained by the National Academies of Science. The Beckman Center also has a garden and museum exhibit featuring the inventions, quotes, and historical records of its benefactor, Arnold O. Beckman.

UCI also has its own performing arts center, the Irvine Barclay Theater, which hosts a variety of musical and performance events in a hall noted for its acoustic design. It is also home to the UCI Symphony Orchestra and plays host to prestigious guest speakers as well. For instance, two recent guests hosted by the Irvine Barclay Theater were His Holiness XIV Dalai Lama and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

The Claire Trevor School of the Arts hosts a number of theaters and galleries, such as the Beall Center for Art and Technology. The school is also known for its redesigned Arts Plaza, which was conceived by Maya Lin and completed in 2006. It serves as a meeting place, study area, outdoor performing arts center, exhibition hall, and lecture area.

For intimate gatherings and conferences, the Dorothy G. Sullivan University Club available due to its full-service banquet and dining amenities. It is also a popular place for students and faculty to have lunch, and its facilities may be rented out for formal events such as weddings or parties.

UC Irvine also hosts a Cross-Cultural Center (the Cross), the first of its kind in the University of California. This facility serves as a multicultural gathering area and venue for events that foster understanding between the various cultures represented on campus. Currently, the Cross-Cultural Center is undergoing a renovation and expansion effort that will double its size and offer more venues for the seven ethnic umbrella organizations and the numerous cultural clubs that operate under them.

Large-scale events make use of the Bren Events Center (the Bren), UCI's largest venue and home to many of its sporting events. It offers 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2) of space and has seating for 5,500. The Bren Events Center is adjacent to the large Crawford Athletics Complex, where UCI's athletes train and compete in state-of-the-art facilities, which include a recently renovated baseball park, track and field, and swimming complex.

The Anteater Recreation Center (ARC) boasts 89,000 ft (27,000 m) of indoor facility designed to house Campus Recreation programs. Anteater Recreation Center Fields, adjacent to the ARC, are a 25-acre (100,000 m2) outdoor complex that supports Campus Recreation Field and court activities. The Sailing Facility, located on the Lower Newport Bay, is a dock spaced leased from Orange Coast College that supports UC Irvine's sailing fleet.

Much of the southern part of UCI is occupied by the University Research Park, a 158 acre (0.6 km²) office and research property operated by The Irvine Company. The University Research Park attempts to form a synergy between UCI, 44 local technology and business interests, faculty start-up companies, and other campus offices. A partial listing of tenants includes Broadcom, Blizzard Entertainment, Skyworks Solutions, Cisco, Center for Educational Partnerships, and more. The property also includes a Starbucks and is currently under expansion (to 2.4 million square ft).

UCI has one of the two California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) buildings on campus. The institutes's purpose is to promote "development and deployment of prototype infrastructure for testing new solutions in a real-world context" in the disciplines of nanotechnology, life sciences, information technology, and telecommunications through technology and research. The 120,000-square-foot (11,000 m2) building itself features several large technology labs, a four-story atrium, and 40 seismic sensors.

UCI also has its own observatory, which is hidden in the empty fields behind University Hills. The observatory, which is operated by the Physics Department, is open to the public during Visitor Nights that are held six times a year. Another yet more remote facility operated by UCI is the Burns Piñon Ridge Reserve in the Mojave Desert.

Two notable public health organizations also maintain independent research facilities at UCI. The American Cancer Society has a research complex on the corner of Campus and California Drive. And recently, the Food and Drug Administration constructed a modern complex on the edge of UC Irvine's San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Reserve. It houses the FDA Southwest Pacific Regional Laboratory and its Los Angeles District office.