Calling campus home

UC Irvine is preparing to break ground on its most ambitious student housing project yet. East Campus Student Apartments Phase 5, known as ECSA 5, will deliver approximately 1,065 new beds in 308 apartment units on 3.2 acres of East Campus.

Set for completion in time for fall 2028 occupancy, the project will rise as a set of six- to seven-story buildings on two underused sites - a vacant office building and a surface parking lot - near the Puerta del Sol student apartments along Campus Drive. It will be the densest housing phase the university has ever built, made possible by drawing on parking and amenities already in place at neighboring East Campus communities.

The need is clear. Across California and the University of California system, demand for student housing continues to outpace supply, making access to campus housing an increasingly important factor in student success. At UC Irvine, campus apartments are running at 99.8 percent occupancy, while nearby two-bedroom units rent for more than $3,000 a month amid a vacancy rate below 3 percent. ECSA 5 is designed to alleviate that congestion, with projected fall 2028 rents ranging from $982 to $2,017 per bed per month - about 34 percent below comparable market rates.

To achieve this, UC Irvine has an important partner in the city of Irvine, as more on-campus student housing can help address regional housing needs and mitigate traffic congestion on city streets.

"Every new on-campus bed eases pressure on Irvine's local rental market while helping us build a more sustainable community," says Victor Cao, senior vice president of local public affairs - Southern California at the California Apartment Association. "By housing students directly on campus, projects like East Campus Student Apartments Phase 5 reduce traffic and lower emissions. It's a win for our environment, our transit goals and the overall livability of Irvine."

The need for more on-campus housing

Affordable, on-campus housing is more than a financial benefit. Research has consistently shown that students who live on campus are more likely to build connections with classmates, participate in campus organizations, engage with faculty and support services, and ultimately graduate. Expanding housing helps UC Irvine strengthen that student experience while moving toward its long-range goal of housing 60 percent of students on campus. With ECSA 5, the amount will top 50 percent of undergraduates for the first time. The university currently houses 50 percent of total students enrolled.

"On-campus housing is one of the most important investments we can make in our students' success," says Willie Banks, vice chancellor for student affairs. "When students live on campus, they build friendships, participate more fully in campus life, access support services more easily and develop a stronger sense of belonging. Those experiences help students persist to graduation and make the university community stronger."

The apartments will primarily offer two- and four-bedroom configurations with a mix of single and double rooms, along with social and academic lounges and outdoor gathering spaces. The buildings will be all-electric and built to a LEED Gold-equivalent standard, continuing the university's push toward sustainable construction. There will be no dedicated on-site resident parking, a design choice that leans on existing capacity and the area's transit access.

ECSA 5 is the latest chapter in a housing expansion that has reshaped campus life over the past decade. The building boom began in 2016 with Mesa Court Towers, the campus's first high-rise dorms, followed three years later by the Middle Earth Towers, twin structures inspired by the mythological trees of J.R.R. Tolkien's fiction.

Together, the two complexes now house 1,656 first- and second-year students. For continuing students, Plaza Verde opened in 2019 with 1,441 beds, and Plaza Verde II followed in 2023 with 1,077 more, both developed in partnership with American Campus Communities and built around study spaces and fitness centers geared toward upperclassmen.

Graduate students have not been left out of the expansion. Verano 8, a $221 million complex that opened in 2022, added 1,055 beds across five seven-story towers, with both studios and family-sized apartments designed for students balancing coursework with family life. The newest addition, Oso Tower, opened in fall 2025 with 424 undergraduate beds in suite-style quads inspired by the nearby San Joaquin Marsh Reserve.

Altogether, the university currently has 18,003 across residence halls, apartments and graduate communities - nearly 40 percent more than 10 years and enough to rank UC Irvine third among UC campuses and California universities for housing availability. Once ECSA 5 opens, that total will climb past 19,050 - a milestone that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago.

"Housing is critical to serving our students," says Tim Trevan, assistant vice chancellor for student housing, of the broader expansion effort. He notes that the university's housing strategy is focused on ensuring that students have the environment they need to thrive academically and personally as enrollment gradually grows over the next 15 years.

A foundation for student success

That philosophy - that a place to live is inseparable from a student's ability to succeed - runs through every phase of the expansion, from first-year residence halls to graduate communities. ECSA 5 reflects the belief that affordable, on-campus housing is a foundation for academic achievement, community and timely graduation.

Second-year computer science major Mason Lam lived in Mesa Court his first year at UC Irvine. This year, he will live in Vista del Campo Norte.

He says that living on campus as a freshman was a great way to meet new people going through the same experiences. "And not having to worry about planning meals was very convenient and made the transition to college life a lot easier," he adds.
"The main benefit I found from living on campus is time saved, since I was only 10 to 15 minutes away from all of my classes or any events/clubs on campus," Lam says. "This allowed me to really explore in my first year, going to as many clubs and activities as I was interested in."

The next steps

The ECSA 5 project is supported through a public-private partnership development model financed with tax-exempt bonds, a structure the university has used successfully in prior housing phases to keep costs down and pass savings on to residents.

As UC Irvine's enrollment continues to grow, officials say, projects like ECSA 5 will remain essential to keeping pace - one more building block in a decadelong effort to make campus not just a place to learn but a place to call home.