Photos: See what People’s Park student dorm looks like with facade in place

The facade panels are all in place on Judith E. Heumann House at People’s Park, photographed by drone on Thursday. Credit: Sara Martin for Berkeleyside

UC Berkeley’s 1,100-bed dorm at People’s Park is taking shape. The university recently finished installing the facade at Judith E. Heumann House, the centerpiece of a controversial project that is bringing student and affordable housing to the long-contested patch of land, a symbol of Berkeley’s progressive history and the former site of activism, homeless encampments and mutual aid.

Aerial photos taken by a Berkeleyside photographer show the 12-story dorm, made from prefabricated panels and generously windowed, extending along the north side of the park on Haste Street, with a shorter wing stretching perpendicularly towards Dwight Way.

Plans for the building call for study lounges, a food market on the ground floor and rooftop solar panels. Credit: Sara Martin for Berkeleyside

Plans for the building call for apartment-style housing with study lounges and a food market on the ground floor, and rooftop solar panels. University spokesperson Kyle Gibson said workers were still working on the exterior windows, doors, lighting and other finishes, as well as installing interior plumbing and electrical systems.

Named for a noted disability rights activist and scheduled to open by fall 2027, the dorm is part of a mini student housing boom that has made this year’s entering class the first to have guaranteed spots in UC Berkeley housing for their first two years.

A 23-story dorm is currently rising at the corner of Bancroft Way and Fulton Street. And university officials plan to create another 1,500-bed student housing complex — including a 26-story tower — at the corner of Channing and Bowditch, knocking down some of the landmarked Arts and Crafts buildings currently on the site, the former Anna Head School for Girls, and preserving others.

The People’s Park project will also include a separate building containing about 100 units of affordable housing, with at least some of those designated as supportive housing for formerly homeless people. Berkeley-based developer Satellite Affordable Housing Associates is overseeing that portion. The university has said 60% of the overall site will remain public green space.

A five-story affordable and supportive housing building will line one side of the former People’s Park site, sharing the space with a T-shaped dorm housing 1,100 students, according to this rendering shared by UC Berkeley.

That supportive housing plan has become an issue in this year’s District 7 city council election, with candidate Aidan Hill arguing it should be scrapped in favor of keeping more of the park as open space. Opponent Syrak Micael and current councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra — who previously protested the university’s plans to develop the park –— have supported adding the affordable housing component.

“At this point, People’s Park as we knew it is gone, and I would rather the permanent supportive housing be there than not be there,” Lunaparra said in a recent interview with Berkeleyside.

Watch the building rise

People’s Park in September 2021. Credit: Dronegenuity