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Project Background
UC Berkeley's newest student housing complex opened in August 2024 and is called xučyun ruwway (HOOCH-yoon ROO-wai), a name in Chochenyo, the language of the Ohlone people. This is the first time Berkeley has given a name in any Indigenous language to a campus building.
In Chochenyo, "ruwway" means a home or a house, and "xučyun" is the name of the region within the ancestral and unceded homeland of the East Bay Ohlone people that includes Berkeley.
The campus invited East Bay Ohlone tribes to suggest names for the complex. Following the leadership of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and UC Berkeley's 'ottoy initiative, Chancellor Carol Christ approved the name xučyun ruwway. [Read the entire announcement on Berkeley News.]
xučyun ruwway is adjacent to UC Berkeley's existing University Village family housing community in Albany, California. The project provides 761 single-occupancy bedrooms in apartment-style units, primarily for single UC Berkeley graduate students without children. xučyun ruwway triples the existing supply of university-owned housing available for single graduate students.
Fully-furnished apartments feature large windows that allow abundant natural light into bedrooms and living spaces. Each apartment includes a full kitchen with major appliances, as well as an in-unit washer and dryer.
Beyond their apartments, students have access to spaces designed for social interaction and well-being, including lounges and meeting rooms. A series of outdoor courtyards provides more than 55,000 square feet of space for passive, social and active uses. Students can lounge and explore gardens with native plants and lush trees, host barbeque gatherings, and take advantage of recreational spaces on new multi-use lawns and terraces.
The apartments are well-served by public transportation. A new transit plaza was added along Monroe Street, directly in front of the apartments. There, students are able to easily catch a direct ride to campus on AC Transit.
This project realizes the third phase of the 2004 University Village Master Plan, which called for developing student housing on this 3.8-acre site of university-owned land. Previously implemented phases of the master plan redeveloped the existing University Village family housing, built a new senior living facility, and constructed community-serving retail buildings, including a Sprouts grocery store, along San Pablo Avenue.
The site for xučyun ruwway was previously overflow parking for University Village and contained small structures used for storage by campus units. A small community recreation building on the site was removed as part of this project.
Construction of the apartments did not alter the borders of the Gill Tract Community Farm or the Rausser College of Natural Resources' growing fields, which are to the north, on the opposite side of Village Creek.
Construction began in September 2022. The apartments opened to student residents in August 2024.
xučyun ruwway: Project Renderings
Rendering of xučyun ruwway at the corner of Monroe and Jackson streets in the city of Albany.
A series of outdoor courtyards will provide more than 55,000 square feet of space for passive, social and active uses.
A new transit plaza will be added along Monroe Street where students can catch a direct ride to campus on AC Transit and connect to nearby BART stations.
Students can lounge and explore gardens with native plants and lush trees, host barbeque gatherings, and take advantage of recreational spaces on new multi-use lawns and terraces.
Located south of Village Creek, xučyun ruwway will be adjacent to the existing University Village family housing, recreational fields and Sprouts grocery store.