Berkeley's People's Park, long a flash point of political and community activism, has been barricaded by stacked shipping containers for more than a year -- but construction on UC Berkeley's student housing project on the site is moving ahead.
The project, which aims to ease the student housing crunch, will provide more than 1,100 beds for undergraduates. A separate building with supportive housing for 100 unhoused people will eventually be built adjacent to the student housing.
The Berkeleyside reports development comes at a time when UC Berkeley continues to increase admissions. The university admitted nearly 800 more first-year students this fall compared to last year. Freshmen and incoming transfer students are guaranteed campus housing.
UC spokesperson Kyle Gibson said in an email most of the floors on the 11-story building have been completed. Crews are now pouring concrete for the upper levels, and prefabricated facades for the exterior sides are due to be installed by December.
Construction began last summer after years of lawsuits and protests to preserve the park as a landmark of the 1960s resistance movement.
The nearly three-acre plot of land just off Telegraph Avenue was barricaded in January 2024 with shipping containers to keep out protesters in anticipation of the state's high court ruling.
Last year, the California Supreme Court ruled that UC Berkeley could build its development.
The development is on track to open for the 2027-28 academic year.
