Just west of its campus in Westwood, UCLA has started work on its latest student housing project: the redevelopment of the Gayley Towers apartments.

The project, now under construction at 565 Gayley Avenue, will cost $108 million to complete, according to a landing page on the UCLA Capital Programs website. Plans call for an eight-story building which will feature 187 bedrooms, with a total of 545 beds to be provided through triple-occupancy rooms.

According to an environmental report circulated in 2022, plans call for setting aside 358 beds for low-income undergraduate students. UCLA has received $35 million in state funding to do so, with a stipulation that the beds be offered for a monthly rental rate of $600. The remaining 184 beds would be priced at market rates.

Mithun is designing the residential complex, which is to have a donut shape which will allow an interior courtyard to be open to exterior elements. The apartments have been described as being of a "co-living" style with communal bathrooms and shared spaces for cooking, eating, studying, and socializing.

565 Gayley AvenueGoogle Maps

Completion is expected in September 2026.

Construction of the new housing complex was briefly in doubt last year, when the UC Regents delayed approval of the project citing concerns about the small size of the rooms - roughly 265 square feet - and how they may impact the mental health of students. UCLA has spent aggressively to boost its on-campus housing stock at a time when roughly  1 in 20 University of California students have been homeless. Some have even resorted to sleeping in cars parked near the Westwood campus.

Private developers have also looked to sate the demand for student housing near UCLA, including Landmark Properties, which is building an apartment complex on nearby Strathmore Drive, and M&A Real Estate Partners, which is in construction on a project along Glenrock Avenue.

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