UC Berkeley Exhibit Marks 20 Years of UC Merced’s Design Vision

Rather than prescribing rigid rules, Duncan explained, architects established shared principles as construction progressed. This approach allowed sustainability concepts to become embedded in the campus's culture from the start.

"There's another really powerful story here about the creation of one of the most sustainable universities in the country," he said.

Tim Stevens, a principal at SCB Architects and a member of the firm's campus environments leadership team, said UC Merced's design was guided by a search for authenticity.

"One of the most compelling questions in designing a new UC campus from scratch is: What is the character of the place?" Stevens said. "For UC Merced, that meant rooting the campus in the Central Valley's agricultural landscape.

"Most UC campuses were once fairly barren and remote pieces of land," he added. "The initial buildings at Merced used honest material expression and a shared architectural vocabulary. They gave the university an immediate sense of stability and permanence."

Those early choices, Stevens said, shaped later phases of development, including the Merced 2020 expansion, which emphasized a mixed-use campus model.

"The library wasn't just a library," he said. "It was the student center and the campus store. That mixing of uses became inspirational for future buildings."

Lilian Asperin, a partner at WRNS Studio, described the years between 2015 and 2020 as a pivotal moment for the campus.

"The public-private partnership, or P3, pulled together broad expertise with deep financial backgrounds and allowed the campus to move at speed," Asperin said. "It was an incredible solution to the challenge of first funding."

"What often gets lost is how much courage it took to make it real," she added. "It was teamwork in the truest sense: public and private partners aligning around a shared mission."

Asperin emphasized the importance of that mission, which was doubling the size of the campus to serve a region and student population with significant unmet need.

"There was a shared understanding that we were serving first-generation students," she said. "That sense of purpose was powerful."

UC Merced Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer Daniel Okoli concluded the symposium by noting that the campus's physical form cannot be separated from its founding mission.

"The founding vision talked about expanding access to the University of California in the Central Valley and advancing social and economic mobility," Okoli said. "It also talked about sustainability. That set the tone."

For Okoli, the campus's most lasting impact is cultural. He pointed to how students responded during campus protests in 2024.

"Our students behaved differently," he said. "They took care of the campus. When the encampment ended, they cleaned the grounds and left it better than they found it."

"That says something about the kind of students who come from this place," Okoli added. "They go into the world and begin to change it."

From the Ground Up: Building UC Merced runs until February 21 at Bauer Wurster Hall Gallery in UC Berkeley.