‘Middle Earth’ student housing property completes $98m expansion

The 215,000 square-foot Middle Earth Towers housing and student-life center opened at University of California, Irvine.

The towers were named after J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The property totals 495 student beds with energy-efficient, LEED Platinum accommodations, dining, learning and amenity spaces along the central campus Ring Road. Led by a design-build collaboration of integrated design firm Mithun and Hensel Phelps Construction, the new facility leverages critical university real estate at the academic core of campus with the introduction of higher density housing and vibrant student amenities that enrich the campus fabric.

The expansion to UCI's Middle Earth features two residential towers above a mixed-use podium and richly landscaped base, echoing the natural form and color of the region's limestone canyons. In the towers, communities of student suites are connected on each level by a "Link Lounge" social amenity space complete with group kitchens, media viewing and laundry facilities. The two-story podium includes a 750-seat dining facility serving the entire campus population with 7,300 meals daily, amenity space for student interaction, multi-purpose classrooms and new headquarters for the university's housing administration.

As a design collaboration centered on UCI's objectives, the new Middle Earth Towers weaves a multi-faceted community into the high-profile academic core of campus and advances the university's goal of a carbon-neutral campus by 2025. The vertical design expands the university's capacity to accommodate increasing enrollment and demand for on-campus housing, as mandated by the University of California Office of the President.

This design-build collaboration between Hensel Phelps and Mithun builds on the team's prior success at UCI with the completion of Mesa Court Towers, another freshman student housing project on campus. Having designed more than 5,000 units of student housing through a design-build partnership, the Hensel Phelps and Mithun team has accrued an invaluable body of knowledge through a tested and successful track record of collaboration that benefits the project, the university and students. The team's collaborations also include Mesa Nueva, Nuevo West and Nuevo East graduate student housing for the University of California, San Diego.

The Middle Earth Expansion is designed to help the UCI campus achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2025.