Undergraduate
UCLA's original residence hall was Hershey Hall, located on Hilgard Avenue in South Campus. It was named after Mira Hershey, who willed $300,000 to have the all-girls dorm built.The original Hershey Hall of the 1930s is still in use today as an academic building. However, the west wing that was added later was demolished to make way for the Terasaki Life Sciences Building. The boys’ wing, built in 1959, was located in the current site of Parking Garage 2.
Today, UCLA’s entire undergraduate residential community is located on a ridge on the northwestern edge of the campus called “the Hill.” The Hill consists of 17 high-rise towers (two of which are still under construction) and 5 low-rise residential complexes housing 11,000 residents; dining halls; commons buildings containing student services, conference facilities, and classrooms; facilities for recreational and varsity sports; the Southern Regional Library; and Tom Bradley International Hall, which contains services for foreign students.
Student life on the Hill is under the care of the Office of Residential Life (ORL). Currently, incoming first-year students are guaranteed three years of on-campus housing and incoming transfer students are guaranteed one year of housing. The Housing Master Plan aims to guarantee housing to all undergraduates for four years by either 2013 or 2014.
The Hill is currently undergoing the Northwest Campus In-fill Project, which will add 1,525 beds, 10 faculty in-residence apartments, a 750-seat dining hall, and four residential towers by 2013. At that point, UCLA will be able to house 12,000 undergraduates, and provide a four-year housing guarantee for all incoming freshmen. Two of these buildings, Holly Ridge and Gardenia Way, which are part of De Neve Plaza, opened February 2012. The other two, Sproul Cove and Sproul Landing, will be finished by 2013. Sproul Cove is being erected on the previously-unoccupied ridge below Rieber Hall. Sproul Landing, which contains the new Sproul Dining Hall, is being constructed on the former site of the Office of Residential Life, which has temporarily relocated to Tom Bradley International Hall.
Read more about this topic: UCLA Student Housing