Top Story
Trinity Commons – ULI Americas Awards for Excellence Winner
Learn more about 2025 ULI Americas Awards for Excellence Finalist Trinity Commons (New York, New York).
UC San Diego North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood – ULI Americas Awards for Excellence Finalist
May 12, 2025
Photo By TOM HARRIS
North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood – Sixth College, UC San Diego.
Photo By TOM HARRIS
Porous and carved building footprints throughout the neighborhood provide a welcoming sense of accessibility through seamless pathways to Ridge Walk and all destinations in and surrounding the neighborhood.
Location: La Jolla, California
Owner/Client: University of California, San Diego
Designers: HKS, Inc.; Safdie Rabines Architects; OJB Landscape Architecture
Design-Builder: Clark Construction
Site Size: 10.6 Acres
UC San Diego North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood (NTPLLN) is a 10.6-acre mixed-use residential and educational “campus within a campus” constructed with a total cost of $535 million. The design-build project transformed a site that had been a surface parking lot since the 1970’s into a new home for UC San Diego’s Sixth College.
As the UC system faces rapidly increasing enrollment rates, student housing insecurity has skyrocketed. Living on campus has been proven to lead to student satisfaction and success, retention, graduation, and primary goals for NTPLLN included increasing housing availability and affordability to any student who qualifies and wishes to live on campus. NTPLLN houses 2,048 students and serves the entire university with a variety of teaching and learning environments.
Photo By TOM HARRIS
The East Quad is framed on the north by Catalyst Residence Hall, above the centrally located Sixth College Administration fronting on Scholars Drive. Streetfront space offers a blend of uses including classrooms, the Commuter Lounge for upper division Sixth College students, multi-purpose classrooms, multiple levels of student dining venues, and the coffee shop/market.
NTPLLN was designed with evidence-based strategies to improve physical, mental and social well-being with access to ample spaces for interaction, light and nature, and healthy food choices. Seeking to advance sustainability and university carbon neutrality goals, NTPLLN responds with the highest levels of environmental stewardship, achieving LEED Platinum for all buildings and an AIA COTE© Top Ten Award.
The neighborhood is comprised of seven buildings including four residence halls, academic offices, lecture halls and classrooms, an auditorium, craft center, dining hall, food retail establishments, and a 1,200 car below-grade parking structure. Buildings are arranged around two major open space quads stitched together with Scholars Drive, which serves as a multi-modal transit corridor and energy center for the community. NTPLLN accommodates approximately 2,904 full-time users and 1,270 visitors from other UC San Diego colleges and the local community each day.
NTPLLN’s buildings are terraced and arrayed across the site with a vertical mix of uses. Academically oriented programs are adjacent to Ridge Walk, a north-south pedestrian path, located on the eastern part of the site. The program transitions to a more residential and socially focused environment on the western part of the site. Porous and carved building footprints throughout provide seamless pathways to all destinations in and surrounding the neighborhood.
Photo By TOM HARRIS
Every opportunity is made to connect to the outdoors visually and physically. This courtyard for Arts & Humanities is surrounded by a lobby and classrooms that all feature open operable door access to it for flowing outdoor teaching and event functions.
Building 6 —The Jeannie auditorium — is a beacon marking entrance to the neighborhood from the UC San Diego campus. Building 1 — Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences administration — features grade-level campus-oriented retail food and coffee establishments facing Ridge Walk and classrooms oriented to the East Quad.
The East Quad is bordered by Building 1 on the east and on the north by Building 2 — Catalyst Residence Hall — above the centrally located Sixth College Administration and a 350-seat lecture hall. Completing the south edge of the quad, Building 5—Mosaic Residence Hall —sits above the craft center, multi-purpose classrooms, multiple levels of student dining, and the market which fronts Scholars Drive.
Below the quad, Building 7 — Parking — provides abundant light wells and direct access to the quad above or to Scholars Drive. The West Quad is framed by Buildings 3 and 4 — Kaleidoscope and Tapestry Residence Halls — which sit above street level Residential Life and concierge/mail services. Western buildings are buffered from the street by existing landscape that retain mature trees and a berm.
Photo By TOM HARRIS
Important for student mental health and even brain health, taking advantage of the awe-inspiring view of the Pacific ocean from residential terraces, students are provided with respite and connection to nature. The adjacent flex conference room space also provides revenue opportunities and can be rented for public community gatherings of 20-30 people.
More than a year before initiating a design competition for NTPLLN, the university began developing a 1,400-page Detailed Project Program (DPP) by bringing together stakeholders in a series of workshops and community presentations. The DPP outlined both qualitative and quantitative objectives for the project, clearly articulating a vision for a progressive, inspiring environment that would set new standards for future UC projects. In late fall of 2016, the university selected several design-build teams to participate in an intensive competition process. In March 2017, UC San Diego awarded the project to the design-build team of Clark Construction, HKS and Safdie Rabines Architects, and OJB Landscape Architects and they collaborated closely with the university, community and student body to confirm the master plan and program and test design concepts.
The final design was completed in September 2017 and construction started in June 2018. Despite COVID-19-related construction delays, residential buildings opened in support of the university’s “return to learn” campaign in fall 2020 and additional academic buildings opened in early 2021.
Researchers from the university, architecture team and collaborating groups conducted a longitudinal study comparing student experiences pre- and post-move, which informed design and operational adjustments at NTPLLN. Students reported an 8.2% reduction in depression scores even amid the period of unprecedented circumstances for isolation and health concerns on college campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic and a 27.96% increase in satisfaction with residential spaces. Lessons learned from NTPLLN are being applied to subsequent campus projects, to improve well-being of the UC San Diego community and support the University’s climate action goals.