After nearly two years of construction, UC Riverside has opened a major new student housing and dining complex at the north end of campus.
The Dundee Residence Hall is the first new student housing project completed in six years. Together with the nearby North District housing project under construction, the project will help UCR meet its increasing housing needs in coming years.
Dundee consists of two seven-story residential towers and sits next to the new 51,000-square-foot two-story Glasgow Residential Restaurant.
Dundee and Glasgow, which began construction in December 2018, opened to students at the start of the fall quarter.
The residence hall features several amenities including a fitness center, lounges, study areas, multipurpose room, and a laundry room. The two buildings wrap around a courtyard featuring Ping-Pong tables, rock gardens, newly planted trees, benches, and other outdoor seating.
The buildings feature a modern, apartment-like design that also references the campus’s heritage, said Drew Hecht, co-director of project management for the Office of Planning, Design, and Construction. He noted the structures are shaped and situated to provide shade to the courtyard.
“We wanted to create an experience that makes students feel safe and encourages them to reach out in their new environment,” he said.
Dundee is designed to accommodate 820 beds in 396 single, double, or triple-occupancy rooms. However, due to new COVID-19 safety and distancing protocols, it will only have 200 residents with each person housed in a single room.
“It’s quite amazing to have this available to us,” said David Henry, executive director of Housing, Dining and Hospitality Services. “It’s really allowed us to reduce density especially during these times.”
Glasgow is the campus’s largest and most modern dining venue, replacing the closed Aberdeen-Inverness Residential Restaurant. It has an 830-seat capacity on two floors, and a 3,500-square-foot commercial kitchen with nine walk-in cooler/freezers.
The building is decorated with plants and features large windows offering natural light and views of the neighboring Box Springs Canyon, creating an open, airy atmosphere.
“It’s magnificent,” said Lanette Dickerson, executive chef for Dining Services. “It’s got every piece of culinary equipment you can imagine. It’s a chef’s dream.”
Glasgow has four food stations where students can order food, two private dining rooms, an exhibition bakery, outdoor terrace, and a Scotty’s retail store near the entrance.
When diners enter the restaurant, they can choose between savory, which includes a large variety of entrees, or greenery, which includes salads and soups.
Moses Preciado, senior manager at Glasgow, said the goal is to provide variety and value to diners.
For now, the restaurant is take-out only and is open only to students. Dining Services has created a new mobile app called Glas2Gow that provides students the option of ordering ahead and picking up their food from a side patio area with a scan of a barcode.
Preciado said the reaction from students has been great, with many positive comments about the new facility.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “Everything we’ve been working on for so long is coming to fruition.”
