UCSD East Apartment Development

UC San Diego’s Village@Torrey Pines East apartment development, featuring solar-heated showers and “wind scoops” that pull in Pacific breezes, is celebrating its grand opening with news that it won LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Gold certification. The green-building award recognizes Village East’s water- and energy-efficient features in addition to many other sustainability features.

Village East, home to 807 transfer students, is the ninth UC San Diego building to achieve LEED certification and the sixth to be certified LEED Gold. Twenty additional UC San Diego projects are undergoing certification through a preliminary LEED registration process.
Village East apartment project includes The Bistro, a full-service restaurant that accepts reservations.

The affordably priced apartments on the north side of the main La Jolla campus come with broadband Internet and ocean views. Village East includes a convenience market and The Bistro, a full-service restaurant that accepts reservations. The apartments are a short stroll from world-class surfing at Black’s Beach and an array of on- and off-campus entertainment and recreational opportunities.

The 267,000 gross-square-foot Village East development is adjacent to the 1,060-bed, 343,000 gross-square-foot first phase called the Village@Torrey Pines West. The pair of developments, Village East and West, has transformed the north entrance of campus into a trendy green version of San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood.

Each of the 146 five- and six-bed room apartments will have a living-dining-kitchen area, shared bathrooms with low-flow fixtures and a storage area. The project includes vending, laundry, mail areas and administrative offices. Windows will maximize the use of ambient outdoor light and the outside lights used after dark are low-energy LEDs. Occupancy sensors within apartments shut off lights and appliances when rooms are unoccupied.

Non-potable “recycled” water nourishes native outdoor plants through an efficient drip-irrigation system. The apartments’ plaster, paving, carpet and metal wall studs are made from recycled material, and Village East residents are bathing with water that is heated directly by sunlight thanks to a solar-thermal water heating system.

No State of California money was used to build Village II: external financing was provided by UC-issued bonds that are being repaid by student-housing fees.

The Village East project was built without the addition of any parking spaces. That approach is consistent with the university’s Long Range Development Plan, which emphasizes a gradual reduction of single-occupancy vehicles arriving to campus through alternative transportation programs and projects.

To encourage students living on campus to use bikes, bicycle storage is provided in Village East rooms. About 1,000 bike racks have been added to the campus and frequent shuttle stops are close to Village East’s doors.

Greater integration of mass transit options is only one of many sustainable features that led to Village East’s LEED Gold certification.

Clark Design/Build of California used recycled and regionally produced building materials and practices in the construction. Main structural-support walls were moved from the exterior of the building to the interior, which promotes the natural flow of ventilating air.

Solar collectors mounted on the Village East’s roofs and canopies above exterior walkways, absorb solar energy, transferring it to a non-potable fluid that flows down to tanks where heat exchangers warm the separate potable water system. Residents draw the solar-heated water for showers and baths with the turn of a faucet.

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