Photos: Take a peek inside UC Berkeley’s newest student housing

xučyun ruwway, named to honor the homeland of the Ohlone people, is UC Berkeley’s largest graduate student housing complex. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight

Entering UC Berkeley’s new student apartment complex near University Village in Albany feels a bit like walking into a fancy tech company’s office space. 

Its downstairs common area has many spots for working, including tables and booth-style seating. Natural light is plentiful, thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows. Amenities include several study spaces with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, barbecue grills, a fitness center, secure bike storage, and cozy living room-style space complete with a fake fireplace. Perhaps most importantly for the current generation of students, there’s no shortage of standard and USB electrical sockets in the commons.

This week Berkeleyside took a tour of xučyun ruwway, the six-story, 761-bed, butter-yellow-and-gray apartment complex that opened to graduate students in August, but has since opened up spots to undergraduates as the university “reconsidered the demand from our various student populations,” according to spokesperson Adam Ratliff. 

Several bus lines connecting Albany with downtown Berkeley and the Cal campus have a stop outside xučyun ruwway complex. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight LocalThe common study spaces for residents on the ground floor of the xučyun ruwway housing complex connect with one of the three courtyards. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight LocalThe art displayed throughout the complex are all original pieces sourced from local artists, according to the ACC property manager. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

About 360 graduate students and 200 undergraduates live in the five interconnected buildings, built on what was previously a parking lot. UC Berkeley said the building is not currently at capacity. Of the 761 beds, about 130 remain vacant. The studios and one-bedroom apartments have been the most popular among students, while the four-bedroom option is the least in demand.

Ratliff attributed the vacancy rate to the fact that many graduate students may not yet be aware of the new housing. He said there’s generally “really strong interest” for grad student housing, though he couldn’t immediately give occupancy numbers for the university’s other graduate housing buildings. Cal’s Unit 1, 2 and 3 residential halls for undergraduates, located in Southside Berkeley, are completely full, he said.

The name xučyun ruwway (pronounced HOOCH-yoon ROO-why) is written in Chochenyo, a language of the Ohlone people, and was selected in consultation with tribal groups to honor their homeland. It’s UC Berkeley’s first building to have an Indigenous name.

The building is a private-public project of UC Berkeley and American Campus Communities (ACC), which developed and manages the building. ACC, which is also behind UC Berkeley’s Blackwell Hall in the Southside neighborhood, develops, owns and manages dorms across the U.S.

Lots of gathering space and each resident gets their own bedroom

One of the three courtyards inside the graduate student housing complex. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

The complex, shaped like the letter “E” but with an extra prong, was designed with outdoor space in mind, with three courtyards built for “active,” “passive,” and “social” use, said Michael Cipriano, senior vice president of development at ACC. The Cal graduate students with whom the developers consulted indicated a preference for gathering spaces, he added.

Unlike most UC Berkeley residence halls, each resident gets their own bedroom. Most of the fully furnished apartment units have either two or four rooms, a shared bathroom and kitchen. Common areas have heating and air-conditioning, while rooms do not. Parking spaces are available to residents for $75 per month. Monthly rents range from $1,585 for a spot in a four-bedroom apartment to $2,322 for an entire one-bedroom apartment.

The shared, all-gender restroom near the ground-floor lobby is equipped with sinks with built-in hand dryers, solving a longstanding problem — hand dryers are often placed awkwardly by the door, which means water drips onto the ground as you walk to the dryer. (Online, the sink retails for about $1,900.) 

The xučyun ruwway housing complex offers parking for $75 a month. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight LocalUniversity Village, Cal’s housing complex for students with families, in Albany. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

The apartment complex is across the street from University Village, a housing complex for UC Berkeley students with families established in the 1950s. It’s on the 52 and 18 bus lines and a short walk from Sprouts Farmers Market, Target and Whole Foods. 

At the grand-opening ceremony Wednesday, the developer, architecture and construction teams were joined by UC Berkeley, Albany and local Indigenous leaders to celebrate the naming of the building, which is seen as a step toward repairing relationships between tribal groups and a university still working to repatriate thousands of Native American human remains. There were few students present as classes are not yet in session. (Unlike some of UC Berkeley’s residence halls, residents of xučyun ruwway can continue living in their apartments over winter break.)

All of the apartments are equipped with appliances and basic furniture. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLightA two-bed- two-bathroom model apartment unit inside xučyun ruwway. All units come furnished with a bed, desk and chair. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

New dorm is part of a student housing wave

Cal is in the midst of a student housing boom after decades of underproduction made it the UC campus that offers guaranteed housing to the smallest percentage of its students. 

In 2018, UC Berkeley opened the 752-bed Blackwell Hall, named for the school’s first tenured African American professor. In 2024, in addition to xučyun ruwway, it welcomed students into 772-bed Anchor House — the $300 million downtown Berkeley residential building for transfer students that was gifted to Cal. And inside the shipping container walls that surround People’s Park, UC Berkeley broke ground in July on a 1,100-bed student housing complex — a hotly contested project that was delayed for years due to protests and lawsuits seeking to stop development on the historic site symbolizing Berkeley’s counterculture. 

UC Berkeley also plans to build its tallest dorm yet, with 1,500 beds for freshman and sophomores, in the Southside neighborhood.

In 2017, then-Chancellor Carol Christ set a goal of providing two years of campus housing for entering freshmen and one year of housing for entering transfer students — the equivalent of 9,000 beds, based on current enrollment data, UC Berkeley spokesperson Kyle Gibson has said.