A building project in La Jolla that once was criticized as “ominous and monolithic” opened to thunderous applause with a ceremonial ribbon cutting July 24.
The seven-story building, once known as the La Jolla Innovation Center, is now simply called the 8980 Building, given its address at 8980 Villa La Jolla Drive at the intersection of La Jolla Village Drive. It is just south of UC San Diego and the VA Medical Center.
The building will serve as the headquarters of UC San Diego’s Division of Extended Studies, housing international programs, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, new modern studio facilities for UCTV and other student services.
Next to it is the La Jolla Wellness Center, which will UCSD health sciences programs.
According to UCSD, the 8980 Building is one step in a series intended to bring university offerings into the broader off-campus community.
During local planning group hearings on the project in 2021, Jeff Graham, executive director of real estate at UCSD, said facilities that were housing those programs were considered “seismically non-compliant” and that it would be cost-prohibitive to bring them into compliance.
At the ribbon cutting, UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said the building represents “a little piece of who we are in of transformation that we are making happen on campus.”
“It’s a physical transformation, it’s an intellectual transformation and it’s a cultural transformation,” he said. “So what you see behind me is part of that physical transformation that is happening on campus. … When you drive on [the Interstate 5 freeway] you will see the skyline [of the university campus]. You will see multiple cranes. Those cranes are aimed at using our space assets effectively. … You will see more transformations in the neighborhood.”
“We want the community to come to us and we want to come to the community,” Khosla added. “If we have a building here, it’s because we want to project ourselves into the community and be closer to where they are.”
Khosla acknowledged, however, that “every so often, there is someone who doesn’t like the height or the density or … might complain.”
Such was the case with this project. In 2021, of the La Jolla Community Planning Association and other local residents opposed the development, citing traffic and aesthetic concerns.
Some called the design “butt ugly” and others called the proposed size “appallingly bad.”
Though the building is about 100 feet tall and the city of San Diego’s coastal height limit is 30 feet, the project, as university property, is “subject to UC [not local] land management policies, including those relating to building heights, setbacks and design,” UCSD community liaison Anu Delouri said at the time.
LJA sent a letter to the University of California Board of Regents in May 2021 to “ its displeasure in the [facility’s] architectural design and height.”
The letter contended the building would be “out of scale with surrounding development” and was “architecturally uninspired.”
The regents soon approved the building, and it is now open with the design as presented.
“Even though this looks like a big building, it is but a small but extremely important part of UC San Diego [development],” Khosla said. “In the last decade, we added 10 million square feet to 11 million before that, so we have nearly doubled the space.
“Every time we build a building, people think it’s just a building. But as you look at this building, I want you to see the programs inside. … Don’t just appreciate the architecture, which is beautiful, but appreciate the intellectual content that is housed in this building.”
Kelly Smith, director of the Division of Extended Studies, said students already have begun instruction at 8980, and “this enhanced learning environment will surely encourage our students to study with us longer.”
She added that the new building offers instructors “the flexibility to explore new ways to educate our students that we couldn’t have done at our former facilities.” ♦
