New Student Housing and Dining

Building 1: Located to the south of the Student Union Building, this site will require the deconstruction of Emily Carr Residence and Margaret Newton Residence. The new building will include a dining hall and servery on the main floor with student housing on the upper floors. This site will be developed first.

Building 2: The construction of a new student residence on this site will require the deconstruction of the existing Cadboro Commons building. The new building will include conference, meeting and academic space on the main floor with student housing on the upper floors.

The landscape design is an extension of the east-west Campus Greenway Landscape Plan and Design Guidelines and new north-south Greenway. 

The new 600-seat dining hall, multi-purpose room, kitchen, c-store, coffee shop and servery will be located on the lower two floors of Building 1.

The use of wood structure and finishes are a design driver within the social spaces of these areas. Wood has a historical connection to the site and draws upon the material and building traditions of the area. In addition, the use of wood structure and finishes connects the indoor and outdoor spaces.
In addition, the use of wood structure and finishes connects the indoor and outdoor spaces.  

The two new student housing buildings will include 783 beds. 621 of these will be new beds for students currently living off-campus and 162 will replace beds from existing inventory.

The buildings will offer traditional dorm rooms, and new "community-living" style rooms which include single rooms with a shared kitchen and living area. To learn more about the university's on-campus residence options, visit the Residence Services site.

The project has prioritized opportunities to recognize and preserve the spirit of place inherited from the past, and connect students to Indigenous communities and the history of traditional territories where UVic resides.

The new buildings will serve as a tool for Indigenous education, both in aspects of the design and through signage, storytelling and programming. For example, the Indigenous student lounge and landscape in building 2 will support a variety of Indigenous engaged learning programs including storytelling and community building.

To learn more about the university's Indigenous student engagement, visit the Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement site. 

In support of the university's commitment to sustainability, the project is targeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) V4 Gold and Passive House certification. 

Passive House design principles aim to reduce energy consumption, GHG emissions, maintenance costs, and replacement costs by investing in a higher performing building envelope. LEED V4 is an internationally recognized, third party rating system based on energy and environmental principles, which balance knowledge from established practices and emerging concepts. 

In addition, wood is incorporated in to the building designs through the use of a mass timber structure in Building 1 and the wood finishes in Building 2. The use of wood as a primary building material significantly offsets the carbon footprint of the project. 

Two classrooms, conference facilities and meeting spaces will be located on the first two floors of Building 2. 

The installation of the Modular Dining Facility has been scheduled to begin in May 2020, to minimize disruption to the campus community. It will be installed over the summer and be operational by September 2020. It will remain in place until July 2022, when the permanent dining facility in the new student residence building opens.