Kresge College’s new Academic Center advances mixedmaterial projects beyond typical hybrid-timber construction. By Alex Wilson, PE, and Ian McFarlane, PE, SE
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estled among the redwoods on forested acreage marked by the ridges and ravines inherent to Northern California, the University of California, Santa Cruz’s (UCSC’s) new Kresge College Academic Center features a unique approach to hybrid design and construction different from the typical “steel-beams-and-timber-slab” hybrid model. The largest of the 125,000-square-foot expansion’s four buildings, the Center’s below-grade concrete podium and retaining walls hold back the hillside, supporting an impressive “lobed” mass timber roof that celebrates the inherent beauty of exposed wood. Light-frame wooden shear walls and a steel moment frame round out the design as the primary lateral Fig. 1. The new Kresge College Academic Center’s subtle curves let in more light than the College’s original campus buildings. (Photo by Jason O’Rear)
system of the roof structure. The Center’s CrossLaminated Timber (CLT) diaphragm is pushing the limits beyond what was formally codified at the time of design. Working collaboratively with the design architect and contractor, Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA) created a structural design that bridged the gap between vision and reality, historic and modern, and mass timber and hybrid systems.
‘Curvature and Porosity’ Design architect and architect of record Studio Gang envisioned Kresge’s four-building expansion— the Kresge College Academic Center and a trio of mass timber residence halls—as an opportunity to increase the College’s accessibility and better connect it with the surrounding natural ecology and the greater UCSC campus. The new buildings do not
Fig. 2. The renovation was sited and designed to minimize the removal of redwood trees, resulting in the Center’s four protruding wings—or lobes—inspired by the growth patterns of polypore fungi. (Photo by Jason O’Rear)
JULY 2025
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