By Ana Acosta
Long Beach State officials and community members gathered virtually to discuss plans for future developments to the campus in their 2035 Campus Master Plan update on Tuesday night.
The 2035 Master Plan presentation revealed plans for new academic buildings, housing developments, and modern renovations for outdated campus buildings.
Lindsey Graff, a campus planner for architect company DLR, announced that the developments seek to “optimize” buildings and centers that already exist on campus.
“It’s less about physical growth and more about optimizing what’s there today,” Graff said. “We’re looking at how to renovate existing buildings for the future.”
The project is currently in phase one, where campus planners gather information from campus and community members through “listening sessions” to determine potential issues and opportunities to focus on.
Graff also emphasized that the plans revealed in the presentation are conceptual ideas and that the next step is to develop an Environmental Impact Report that will reveal how the concepts will affect the campus and community.
Planned Projects
The new plan features new academic, non-academic, and community projects that project supervisors hope will be developed in the future for the campus community.
Campus planners listed numerous updates and renovations for academic and recreational developments in the 2035 Master Plan
Image courtesy: Office of Physical Planning & Sustainability
The presentation outlined plans for a new housing complex for graduate students and employees. The housing structure will have four stories and an additional two levels for parking. However, parking in this housing structure will be reserved for faculty and residents only.
The 2035 Master Plan revealed plans to develop a new housing structure intended for graduate students and campus employees.
Image courtesy: Office of Physical Planning & Sustainability
Further, Michael Gardner, the CSULB manager of planning and sustainability, revealed plans to develop an updated two-story bookstore and shopping center. These plans will update the campus bookstore and dining services.
The plan is to eventually remove the building where The Nugget currently resides to replace it with a two-story dining and retail center.
“The bookstore is kind of outdated, so updating it to more modern retail – whatever students are interested in when the time comes,” Gardner said. “Maybe even having some outside vendors there and then food service [with] high quality, healthy food, but at a price point students can afford.”
Garner called these plans an intermediate-range project, which means the developments will take around five to ten years to complete.
CSULB's 2035 Master Plan conceptualizes developments for existing campus buildings, and for new construction developments.
Image courtesy: Office of Physical Planning & Sustainability
Other renovations listed in the presentation included developments for the Kinesiology, Engineering, and Education buildings.
Campus planner, Melissa Soto noted certain projects that were not completed in the 2008 Master Plan, like the unbuilt soccer stadium, will be transitioning into the 2035 plan to be completed.
The campus planning team announced that they plan to complete the Environmental Impact Report by Dec. 2022 to move forward towards development.
The University Executive Team will be meeting again virtually from 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10 to review the same material.
To RSVP for the meeting or for more information regarding the 2035 Campus Master Plan, contact campus planner Melissa Soto at CSULB-Communityengagement@csulb.edu.
