Construction for the Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing project is set to begin this week.
The project was approved by the UC Board of Regents in March 2025 and is scheduled to be open for students in fall 2028, according to Lindsay Facchini, the director of housing development at UC Berkeley Capital Strategies.
The building will have 23 stories, making it the tallest student housing building at UC Berkeley. Bancroft-Fulton will mainly comprise triples, with some doubles and singles, in addition to five faculty and staff apartments. In total, the building will consist of 1,625 beds. Additionally, there will be a 500-seat dining commons connected to large elevated terraces.
The building will feature a number of amenities, including a fitness center, a wellness studio, music and game rooms, communal kitchens, meeting spaces, social and study lounges and laundry facilities, according to Facchini.
The Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing project was designed by architect Kieran Timberlake, who also created a housing complex, The Tidelands, for medical students and trainees at UC San Francisco.
According to Facchini, the project budget approved by the UC Regents places the cost of construction at $443 million.
The Bancroft-Fulton location is owned by the regents and is currently occupied by a small campus office building, an underground parking lot and a surface parking lot. According to Facchini, it is one of few sites owned by the regents that is available for large developments, and the site was chosen for its proximity to the main campus.
According to its website, the project will address “UC Berkeley’s critical need for student housing.” Currently, undergraduate first year and transfer students only get one year of guaranteed housing. Meanwhile, Berkeley enrolled a record number of incoming freshmen for the 2025-2026 school year.
The Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing project is part of campus efforts to expand the housing guarantee for incoming freshmen to two years instead of one, according to Facchini.
In addition to the Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing project, campus is in the process of building the Judith Heumann House, which is set to open in fall 2027, on the former site of People’s Park. Together, the two housing projects will add more than 2,700 beds to the student housing portfolio, according to Facchini.
Facchini said by expanding bed capacity through additional housing projects, campus hopes to enhance the student experience and extend the housing guarantee. The Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing is specifically designed to create a “living community” for first and second year students.
“The University has made substantial progress by increasing bed count and housing options for students and will focus future efforts on providing housing options that meet the needs of continuing students,” Facchini said in an email.