People’s Park construction is on schedule, says university

People’s Park on Dec. 14, as seen from a window at Moe’s bookstore. Work on the student housing part of the construction project is under way. Credit: Tracey Taylor

Construction at People’s Park — which began in July 2024 after the project was given the green light and UC Berkeley cordoned off the site with a wall of shipping containers — is going as planned, according to the university.

In a an update issued Thursday, Cal said grading the lot is nearly complete and work on the student housing part of the project has begun, with the installation of a tower crane in anticipation of pouring the building’s foundation.

The plans for the project, which have been years in the making and prompted much opposition, including several lawsuits, include a 1,100-bed student housing complex, green space, as well as some form of commemoration to acknowledge the park’s history, from being land originally inhabited by native peoples, to its pivotal role in Berkeley’s free-speech protests in the 1960s.

The original design also includes a 100-unit supportive housing building for unhoused people and those on “extremely” low incomes. However, a Berkeley nonprofit that was set to build the affordable apartments backed out of the project in 2023 during the lengthy legal battle over the site. UC Berkeley spokesperson Kyle Gibson told Berkeleyside Friday that after issuing an RFQ in the first quarter of 2025, the goal is to bring a developer on board this summer, two years ahead of the anticipated start of construction. He added that the university is working with the city and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to extend funding earmarked for the project.

Plans for the park include student housing which is scheduled to open in 2027, a glade, and eventually, if a developer signs on, a 100-unit supportive housing building. Credit: UC Berkeley

Archaeological and tribal monitors are on site during any ground-disturbing activities. Gibson said it is standard practice for construction projects on university property to have such monitors on site during excavation work. The monitors have the authority to suspend work if cultural resources are discovered. The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project also outlines mitigation measures the university is committed to undertake should any cultural resources be found during the construction project, and construction crews are provided with training to ensure they can respond appropriately to any discovery of cultural resources or human remains. To date, “no indigenous cultural resources or human remains have been discovered at the site,” Gibson said. (The discovery, in 2016, of two sets of Ohlone human remains during excavation in front of Spenger’s Fish Grotto at 1919 Fourth St., near the West Berkeley Shellmound, put a stop to construction of that project.)

Gibson said UC Berkeley anticipates the new student housing being open in time for the beginning of academic year 2027-28.