University of California, San Diego Opens Design and Innovation Building

The University of California, San Diego opened the $67 million Design and Innovation Building in La Jolla in November of 2021. The four-story, 74,000-sf facility is a dynamic hub for experiential learning and discovery that collocates entrepreneurial activities previously dispersed across campus. Sited adjacent to a new light rail station and an outdoor amphitheater, the multidisciplinary structure includes four distinct spaces. On the ground floor, the Basement is a campus-wide business incubator where students will learn how to guide new ventures from conceptualization to market readiness. The Maker Space is a highly adaptable workshop on the second floor with advanced tools for prototyping and fabrication such as laser cutters and 3D printers. The third floor houses the Design Lab where collaborative teams will create novel solutions for complex societal problems, while the fourth-floor Entrepreneurship Center will enable academic and industry partners to engage in shared research, development, and commercialization activities. Leveraging extensive internal and external glazing to put science on display, the building also offers general-assignment classrooms, meeting rooms, a large event venue, a restaurant, and offices for faculty and graduate students.

EHDD was the architect for the project with BNBuilders as general contractor. Ground was broken in October of 2019 on the sustainably designed facility, which is expected to attain a minimum of LEED Gold certification.