The Village at Centennial Square: Replacing Verducci Hall with a Much More Livable Residential Complex The University will actually begin construction of the Village at Centennial Square April 1 at the site of the former Corporation Yard and Parking Lot 8 behind SFSU's Burk Hall. Breaking ground for the new Village at Centennial Square residential and student services complex, coupled with the demolition of Verducci Hall, will propel -literally with a big bang-the University into its second century and the next millennium. "Building the Village at Centennial Square is without a doubt the campus' top physical project at this time," says Bob Quinn, vice president for physical planning and development. "It's a breakthrough project, a model of thinking differently." With construction costs for Village at Centennial Square projected to be $48 million, it is the largest construction project SFSU has undertaken in its 100-year history. The project also is a major victory for SFSU because after nine years of often-difficult negotiations with both state and federal agencies, it replaces a 30-year-old, structurally unsound, earthquake-damaged Verducci Hall with a much more livable complex. The new project will be built on different levels, with open courtyards, canopied walkthrough areas, ample use of glass to provide increased amounts of natural light, and what developers are calling "a very San Francisco feeling." The design is low-rise, completely accessible and makes use of smaller, more intimate units broken up by green space. The final project will create 190 units of two and three bedroom student apartments providing 760 beds (matching Verducci's capacity), approximately 160 units of parking, approximately 12,000 square feet of commercial space, and a 50,000 square foot student affairs complex to house the University's many student support programs and provide "one-stop shopping" for student services. The University selected Catellus Residential Group as the developer with Sasaki and Associates as the design team. While construction begins April 1, a move-in date of August 2000 is planned. Construction will last for a period of 14 months using a very fast, innovative "design-build" technique which makes use of the idea of actually designing interior spaces as the buildings go up. Replacing Verducci with the Village at Centennial Square will allow more students to live closer to the heart of the University's campus. Because of the new project's proximity to existing campus residence halls and the student apartment complex, a residential village within the setting of a dense urban campus will result. Importantly, the site was also selected because it offers the best, safest soil conditions for construction. The University will lease the land to the SFSU Foundation, Inc. in return for which the SFSU Foundation will construct and own the Village at Centennial Square. At the end of the ground lease, the property will revert to the State of California. Financing for the project will be provided by the University's Foundation which will issue no-risk construction bonds, as well as by the proceeds from the settlement with FEMA. "The Village at Centennial Square project is good for the University, its students and for the City of San Francisco," Quinn says. "It's the first opportunity the University has had to design a project with thought given to the community beyond our 96-acre campus." To this end, the project helps to alleviate the City's severe housing crunch by providing 760 beds on the SFSU campus that students would otherwise be looking for in the City.

More Centennial Square pictures...