Construction has begun on a 772-bed, apartment-style housing project for UC Berkeley transfer students that is being designed, built and funded by the Helen Diller Foundation .
The 500,000 square-foot building, named Helen Diller Anchor House, will be gifted to Berkeley upon its completion and is anticipated to be open in time for the 2024-2025 academic year. Rent for each housing unit will be below market rate, and the building will require no public funds to construct or operate.
Net income from the property will perpetually fund scholarships for low-income students at Berkeley.
Located directly across from the western entrance to campus on Oxford Street, Anchor House will represent a significant step in addressing the student housing shortage at Berkeley. The building will house transfer students — 21% of all Berkeley undergraduates are transfers — who often can’t find affordable housing near campus and struggle to connect to traditional undergraduate experiences.
Designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, Anchor House was developed in collaboration with the Helen Diller Foundation and UC Berkeley Capital Strategies. The new residential building will be designed for, built for and donated to Berkeley, a project similar to International House, a multicultural residence and program center for Berkeley students, that was constructed in 1930 and funded by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Chancellor Carol Christ said that Anchor House sets a new standard for philanthropy at Berkeley, which in March 2020 launched “The Campaign for Berkeley: Light the Way,” the largest fundraising campaign in its history, to raise $6 billion by 2023.
“I want to express my deepest thanks to the Helen Diller Foundation and the team involved with the execution of this magnificent project,” Christ said. “When I came to UC Berkeley, I stated my ambitious goal to double our student housing over the next decade. I am very grateful for the vision, dedication, enthusiasm and generosity of the Helen Diller Foundation and its team in ensuring that Berkeley will provide inspired housing for our students and remain a beacon of light for many generations to come.”
Once it is constructed, Anchor House will provide a dedicated home for transfer students like fourth-year public health major Daniel Vasquez, who transferred to Berkeley from East Los Angeles College in fall 2020.
Vasquez said he felt less valued on campus because housing was not guaranteed for transfer students. Due to the pandemic, he didn’t move to Berkeley until last spring and said he found that trying to find affordable housing on or near campus was a “frustrating process.”
“I immediately went into panic mode because I just kept thinking, ‘Where am I going to live? Will I be able to afford anything?’” said Vasquez. “But I think this new facility will be phenomenal for the growing population of transfer students on campus who won’t have to worry as much. They will get to focus more on campus life and academics. They’ll really have a place to call home from the beginning of their experience here at Berkeley.”
‘Home, inspired’
The concept for Anchor House is ‘home, inspired’: A building that reinvents the transfer-student housing experience to create a unique sense of community and to prepare students for academic and professional success.
“Helen and Sanford Diller met at UC Berkeley, and much like the profile of the students who will live in this building, they were first-generation college students of modest means seeking a quality public education to make a better life. They would be so very proud to see this building go up, “ said Phyllis Cook, executive officer of the Helen Diller Foundation.
“We are immensely grateful to be able to partner with UC Berkeley in this effort,” she added. “We hope this building serves as an ‘anchor’ for students who live here and for all the generations yet to come.”