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Affordability, Design and the Next Generation of Student Housing: Takeaways from Bisnow’s San Diego Conference

Lindsey Coulter — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:13:22 +0000

Panelists��noted a��distinct��shift in how institutions are thinking about the relationship between unit size and community space.

By Sarah Clow

As student housing is a growing part of the higher education design and construction conversation,��Ů attended the Bisnow San Diego Student Housing & Higher Education Conference on May 13. The event brought together developers, university administrators, architects, and construction leaders, with a focus on balancing growth with affordability and changing��needs and��expecations��regarding��student experience. Across the board,��panelists��agreed that��institutions are rethinking��the traditional student housing model, and for many students next-generation housing options are��non-negotiable.��

Building For All — Balancing Housing Growth with Affordability��

There is a growing��student housing crisis in San Diego, where most universities can only guarantee housing for first- and second-year students. Panelists��were��candid about the structural barriers to building more attainable housing — and financing topped the list. When asked to��identify��the biggest hurdle — financing, land,��or approvals —��nearly every��panelist��pointed to��financing but also pointed��to strategies��for bringing costs down. Chief among them: increasing density.��

Adding more beds to existing builds helps spread construction costs across more units, improving the economics of a project without sacrificing quality. Delivery methods also came up as a key lever, with progressive design-build highlighted as an effective tool for faster, more cost-efficient delivery.��

Panelists��noted a��distinct��shift in how institutions are thinking about the relationship between unit size and community space. Square footage per student is shrinking, while investment in recreation and amenity spaces is growing — a deliberate strategy to push students toward shared community while also keeping per-bed costs down. When asked��about must-have��amenities for higher education projects, panelists pointed to outdoor programmatic space and collaborative, community-focused interiors as essential.��

Speakers included:��Hemlata Jhaveri, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor at UC San Diego; Bob Schulz, University Architect and Associate VP of Real Estate at SDSU; Abbie Hawkins, VP of Development at The Michaels Organization; Lindsey Sielaff, Operations Manager at Hensel Phelps; Richard King, Principal at Gensler; and Lisa Norombaba, Executive Director of Wesley House.��

Panel 2: From Dorms to Destination — Redefining the Student Living Experience

Speakers included: Joel Peterson, Vice Chancellor at San Diego Community College District; Barry Howard, Founder & CSO of Core Spaces; Alex Leonard, Senior Director of Development at Greystar; Weston Harmer, Director of Development at The Barone Group; and David McCullough, Principal at McCullough Landscape Architecture.

Today’s students��value��quality over quantity, and the��student housing��industry is responding.��

The ongoing��shift toward wellness-focused design��is��bringing spas, fitness centers, relaxation spaces, and mental health-supportive environments��into student housing. Interestingly,��these offerings��are no longer��considered��amenities —��they’re��expectations. Panelists noted that younger students are willing to trade square footage for higher-quality finishes and thoughtful design, a trend that is reshaping unit mix strategies toward smaller one- and two-bedroom configurations.��

Landscape and outdoor space took center stage, particularly in the Southern California context. Panelists from McCullough Landscape Architecture emphasized the growing importance of connection to nature, flexible outdoor��programming��and visibility — both for community building and for safety. Transparency and sightlines in outdoor spaces were called out as important design tools for creating environments where students feel secure.��

However, the panel pushed back on trend-chasing in amenity design. For example,��rather than��including a��golf simulator��—��a shiny��amenity that��doesn’t��hold long-term value��—��panelists��emphasized��creating genuine “third spaces” for socialization: areas that��aren’t��over-programmed, allowing students to use them organically.��

Walkability and bike-ability also��emerged��as a priority, with several panelists��advocating for��pedestrian-focused campus design as a means of supporting both student health and affordability by reducing transportation costs.��

The panel also highlighted an interesting tension in the market: while many developers are moving toward smaller bed counts and higher-end amenities to attract students willing to pay a premium, San Diego Community College District is taking a different approach — building higher-density housing with fewer amenities to maximize access for lower-income students. Both strategies reflect the breadth of need in the market.��

On the technology and security front, panelists pointed to smart package and food delivery lockers as an increasingly expected feature — a practical response to the realities of how students live today.��

Finally, the Southern California advantage was hard to ignore. The indoor-outdoor lifestyle is a genuine differentiator in design, and solar energy adoption is accelerating. Core Spaces highlighted a project near UCSD where rooftop and parking structure solar arrays are expected to cover��the majority of��the building’s energy costs — a compelling case for sustainability as both a��values��play and a financial one.��

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Life Sciences & Biotech Event Explores Universities’ Efforts to Fund, Build New Research Spaces

Heidi Warstler — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 14:00:54 +0000

Photo: A panel discussion at Bisnow’s International Life Sciences & Biotech Conference covered how universities develop partnerships to build innovative new facilities that prepare students for success.

By Charlie Lange

Earlier this month, leaders from the life sciences and biotechnology fields, along with experts in architecture and engineering, real estate and finance, convened in San Diego for Bisnow’s International Life Sciences & Biotech Conference.

Held Sept. 10–11, the event featured speakers, panel discussions and keynote sessions focused on the relationship between scientific institutions and the development and construction teams and strategies necessary to build research facilities.

The “Universities Driving Innovation and Biotech Growth: Attracting, Retaining and Supporting Top Talent, Developing Incubators for Startups and Driving Growth through Partnerships” discussion brought together life science department heads from different California colleges with architects responsible for designing and building the research facilities on their campuses.

The conversation covered how research institutions can work in tandem with A/E firms in securing funding, conceptualizing multi-purpose lab and research spaces, and giving students the resources they need to succeed in the field after graduation.

Moderated by Julie Kilpatrick, Senior Managing Director, Southwest Region, for project management consulting firm Turner & Townsend Heery, the panel included:

Carmen Domingo, Dean of the College of Science and Engineering, San Francisco State University
Robert Fagnant, Associate Partner, Syska Hennessy Group
Tracy Johnson, Dean of Life Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
Vlad Pajkic, Partner, ZGF Architects
Corrine Peek-Asa, Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation, University of California San Diego
Jeffrey Roberts, Dean of the College of Sciences, San Diego State University

Building for Flexibility

One common topic was the shift from building department-specific facilities to flexible, shared spaces that can host a variety of disciplines and purposes.

“Everybody always asks for flexibility and modularity,” said Pajik, citing recent projects at Johns Hopkins University and UC Davis, where primary spaces were designed as “core labs” with a variety of equipment and purposes in one place. He said these spaces offer room for collaboration between the sciences and are less expensive than building separate facilities.

Peek-Asa added that such facilities allow for institutions to “solve multiple problems at once.”

“It takes the cardiologist sitting next to the engineering student to understand how we can integrate [solutions],” she said.

“We need to have the flexibility to organize people not around what their Ph.D.s are, but around shared problems of interest,” added Roberts. “When you do that, you can make more efficient and more impactful use of space.”

And that flexibility makes for a better investment, as developments in AI and other new technologies will factor into future needs and functions.

“Listening to researchers, they’re young and fired up on using AI,” said Fagnant. “We’re going to have to parlay our data center experience into some of these facilities. AI integration is going to take a lot of interconnectability between building on campus and the outside world.”

New Ways to Find Funding

Exploring the unknown is foundational to scientific research, but with expansive cuts to federal education funding over the past year, universities have been forced into uncharted territory in securing the money to build or renovate facilities to meet ever-evolving needs.

Johnson brought up how challenges with federal funding have led UCLA to seek investment from private sources, including the companies that will eventually be employing the university’s graduates.

Domingo echoed this sentiment. “One of the important things is for industry to realize that the university systems around them will help create the environment for them to be successful. We’re the backbone of the workforce. Investing in a university like ours and in infrastructure that allows us to train students in the types of skillsets they need is important.”

Roberts added that universities could even find positive new opportunities in the current funding environment.

“It’s going force our faculty to think more creatively and broadly about who they need to reach out to, who they need to work with, and what kinds of problems they need to work on,” he said. “Current challenges from a funding perspective will have some positive impact in terms of building deeper, more meaningful and authentic collaborations with industry.”

Setting Students Up for Success

The panelists also stressed the importance of not only building facilities for learning and research, but also for preparing students to apply what they learn in the market after leaving campus.

“One of the keys in our new building was the ability to teach science differently, with studio-style instruction,” Domingo said. “Instead of going to lecture, then going to the lab afterwards, the space allows us to integrate lab and lecture together, so they’re putting into practice what they’re learning.”

Meanwhile, Johnson spoke about UCLA’s incubator programs, which allow students to work directly with startups.

“We are thinking about what it means to build a culture where our students can see the bridge between what they do in the university, in their classrooms and their labs, to ultimately taking their ideas into industry,” said Johnson.

On the topic of real estate, Peek-Asa added how UCSD’s status as the largest residential campus in the nation has kept students closer to their classrooms and has had positive effects in preserving housing in the local market.

“It’s important, because we’re trying to move our students onto campus so they’re not competing in our real estate market for affordable housing,” she said.

Ultimately, the conversation came back to the importance of public-private partnerships in helping universities develop industry leaders of tomorrow.

“Students are local, so if you invest in your local students, they don’t have to move into the area to be part of your workforce — they’re already there,” said Domingo.

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Bisnow’s Southern California Student Housing and Higher Education Summit Highlights Funding Challenges and Student Experience

Heidi Warstler — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 14:00:09 +0000

From left to right: David McCullough, Principal, McCullough Landscape Architecture; Mark Donahue, Principal, Lowney Architecture; Vincent Polhemus, Associate Director of Preconstruction, Facades, Clark Pacific; Brian Pratt, Associate Vice Chancellor & Campus Architect, University of California, Irvine (UCI), Kevin Conn, Executive Director Student Housing & Residential Life, California State University, Northridge.

By Lindsey Coulter

Bisnow’s June 18 in Los Angeles brought together leaders from across the academic, financing, design and construction communities to tackle nuanced student housing challenges. Beginning with a conversation on Compton College’s volumetric prefab modular student housing project in Compton, Calif. The event covered the growing challenges of funding — especially regarding housing smaller-scale projects — and how design approaches are adapting to meet the unique needs of Gen Z students.

The Compton College Case Study

The event kicked off with a breakdown of Compton College’s volumetric prefabricated modular housing project, completed with the Division of the State Architect by HPI, Bernards and Gafcon.

The 86,000-square-foot, $80 million student housing facility will provide 50 traditional units with access to shared bathrooms and common spaces, 50 semi-suite units with bathrooms and access to common spaces, and 50 studio units for single occupants. As many Compton College students experience food and housing insecurity, 100 percent of occupancy was earmarked for eligible low-income students. The project must also meet the standards of both modular construction and DSA approval.

“We’re building a box that is basically 99% to 100% finished,” said Larry Frapwell, president of HPI. “That box is wrapped, transported, stacked and then finished onsite. The challenges were understanding modular manufacturing and making the best of that system.”

That meant minimizing the project schedule while maximizing the quality of the project all under stringent DSA criteria, while meeting the objectives outlined in the project’s grant. The grant stated that the project could not exceed $80 million and had to be delivered design-bid-build. A modular consultant helped the team understand how to minimize the on-site work as well as the number of modules and module types while meeting DSA criteria.

David Lelie, senior project manager with builder Gafcon, explained the challenge of finding a general contractor with DSA experience, modular experience and residential housing experience, leading the team to do a prequalification process for general contractors as well as modular companies that ultimately led to the selection of Bernards and Boise, Idaho-based Guerdon Modular Buildings.

Cameron Carrizales, regional director of Bernards, spoke to the challenges of working with a DSA inspector across state lines and the need to reframe the modular process from “construction in a controlled environment” to a production line. Additionally, the project essentially had two job sites—the project site and the factory—requiring an even higher degree of communication and coordination within a compressed timeline while trying to lock in the best possible material prices.

From the Funding Perspective

From left to right: Jason Dunster, Senior Integrated Design Director, McCarthy Building Companies; Melissa Soto, Manager, Capital Program Development, California State University, Long Beach; Natalie Greenberg, COO, MJW Investments, Andrea Stalker, Principal, Higher Education, PBK Architects; and Raoul Amescua, Senior Vice President of Development and Public-Private Partnerships, The Michael’s Organization.

Jason Dunster, senior integrated design director for McCarthy Building Companies, led the “Getting Deals Done: Making Projects Pencil and Delivering Solutions” panel, featuring financing and development experts across the higher education, design, real estate and owner/operator/builder spectrum.

Melissa Soto, manager of Capital Program Development for California State University, Long Beach, succinctly encapsulated the state of the student housing in California.

“We don’t have enough housing, and we don’t have the types of housing that we need and we have a serious affordability issue,” Soto said, noting that the student housing waitlist has jumped from 100 students to more than 2,500 in the years following COVID-19.

“There’s nowhere [affordable] to live in Long Beach. Everyone is looking to the campus to provide that service,” Soto said.

The issue also extends to faculty and staff members, who face similar housing affordability challenges.

Natalie Greenberg, chief operating officer for MJW Investments, helped paint the picture in terms of housing investment sales. “In 2022, we had $22 billion in transaction volume; in 2023, $5.7 billion and in 2024 $8 billion,” Greenberg said. “So, we’re slowly climbing our way up. A lot of that has to do with the interest rate environment.”

Raoul Amescua, senior vice president of Development and Public-Private Partnerships for the Michael’s Organization, raised the issue of tapering high school student populations and the tendency for equity to focus on areas of sustained growth and viability. “Right now, that’s going into the big power four football conferences,” Amescua said, adding that equity is hesitant to invest in California based on unstable insurance costs.

This hesitance is shared by higher education leaders, who, Soto noted, are cautious about taking on the significant debt that would be required to build the housing necessary to meet student demand.

Meeting Student Housing Needs

The day’s final panel, “The Next Generation of Student Housing and Accommodating the Growing Student Body,” centered on meeting the needs of Gen Z students — career-focused digital natives who largely value diversity, mental health, inclusion and community.

Kevin Conn, executive director of Student Housing and Residential Life for California State University, Northridge, and Brian Pratt, associate vice chancellor and campus architect for University of California, Irvine, reiterated the growing need for affordable housing on their respective campuses. Additionally, both shared successes stories from investing in housing that supports student wellness through amenities such as communal kitchens, outdoor areas, lounges and affinity spaces.

Mark Donahue, principal with Lowney Architecture, noted that CSU Long Beach has found creative and cost-effective solutions to some of these issues by developing a laundry facility shared by multiple housing buildings that has become a social hub for students, helping to address the issue of isolation.

Modular and prefabricated solutions were raised by Vince Polhemus, associate director of Preconstruction, Facade, for Clark Pacific, who reiterated their value in meeting a variety of housing and wellness needs while also offering longevity.

“[Prefabrication] has higher quality, because … parts are coming together in controlled factory environments,” Polhemus said. “One of the other benefits … is it requires fewer people on the job site to install.”

Donahue also spoke to the superior strength of modular construction when compared to typical stick frame construction, noting that the estimated lifespan of a modular facility is a third to a half longer—and modular facilities are often erected in just weeks and with significantly less noise, disruption and variability.

Panelists also spoke to more straightforward requests from students to have access to different types of dining, daylight, the ability to fully open windows and other design aspects that give them a sense of control as well as a sense of place and belonging.

Editor’s note: Check out more work happening in Compton with , and additional project profiles, updates, and trends in the K-12 and higher education market.

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