Another Round of Massive Development Plans Unveiled by Pepperdine

• This Time Emphasis Is on Expanding Sports Facilities, Student Housing and Parking

BY BILL KOENEKER

Pepperdine University officials have recently submitted plans to the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Department that call for a major remodel of the university’s undergraduate campus with an emphasis on expanding athletic facilities.
The university’s development plans include student housing rehabilitation, building what is described as a new town square with added subterranean parking, constructing a new soccer field and athletic events center, expanding a multipurpose recreation building and additional parking and completing a health center conversion.
A makeover of the current student housing entails 210,651 square feet of new student housing. The multi-purpose building would consist of 39,721 square feet of space including parking, offices and shops. The athletic event center would become a 239,300-square-foot structure from its current 29,940 square feet.
When the dust settles, the completion of a soccer field structure with bleachers and construction of a town square or campus quad would add up to a total of 422,447 square feet of new buildings.
The plans for student housing include renovating and expanding sixteen residential halls, adding support facilities and providing four new community buildings. The renovation would add 300 new student beds.
A remodeling of housing for upper classmen would increase building size from the current 145,952 square feet to 255,537 square feet and reach a height of 42 feet and 10 inches above grade.
The town square or new campus quad would act as a gateway to Seaver College, incorporating landscaping and green grass.
The square would consist of two levels of underground parking with the landscaped quad on the third or top level.
Plans for the multi-purpose recreation and parking facility propose two tiers of parking erected over the existing expanse of the soccer field and track and would provide 1268 parking spaces. A new synthetic field and an NCAA-compliant track would be built on the top of the parking structure.
A new soccer field would meet the needs of the university’s very successful women’s soccer program, according to university officials, by providing an NCAA-compliant competing venue and provide lighting for nighttime use. The bottom level of the structure would house locker rooms, restrooms, storage space and concessions, while the bleachers and press box would comprise the upper level. The bleachers would provide approximately 1020 seats.
The new multi-purpose athletics event center would satisfy the school’s need for NCAA regulation volleyball and basketball competition venue.
The completion of the Firestone Fieldhouse in 1973 was considered the “jewel” of West Coast Conference. Today, it is considered, according to university officials, as “outdated undersized and one of the least preferred basketball venues in the conference.”
The building footprint of the area for the center would be about 107,400 square feet and reach a maximum height of nearly 75 feet. The facility would total 239,300 square feet
The Firestone Fieldhouse would also be renovated with an increase of 11,300 square feet to convert the complex into a full-time student recreation center of 84,743 square feet.
Pepperdine’s current development project is described as an effort “to enhance academic campus life, support education activities on campus, update aging buildings on a thirty-five-year-old campus and provide necessary support facilities.”
In 1972, construction started on the undergraduate campus and a limited campus enrollment of 2500 full time equilevent students was initially permitted and subsequently increased to 3500 FTE. Onsite development continued through the 1970s with infilling occurring. After 1977, all undergraduate programs with the exception of the Bachelor of Sciences in Management were housed in the Malibu campus. In 1978, the school of law was relocated to the Malibu campus. Currently, all five of the university’s schools hold classes on the Malibu campus.
The university over the past several years just finished a major expansion with completion of the upper campus known as the Drescher Graduate Campus.