UC Riverside has opened a major new instructional building, expanding classroom, lab, and studio space for science and the performing arts.
The four-story, 100,700-square-foot Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Facility, or UTLF, was completed over the summer and held its first classes with the start of the fall quarter on Sept. 24.
With a seating capacity of about 1,700, it includes two lecture halls, 19 small-to-mid-sized classrooms, six biology labs, and four chemistry labs. It also includes a 3,400-square-foot dance studio that expands into an additional 2,700-square-foot outdoor performance area.
The new building will help meet the demand for classroom space from UCR’s growing enrollment and is part of $1.5 billion in campus construction in this decade. The building provides an overall 18% increase in general assignment seats, a 54% increase in biology class lab seats, and a 20% increase in chemistry lab seats over the current campus capacity.
It was designed to provide space for lower-division requirement classes, according to the Office of Planning, Design, and Construction.
The new dance studio provides a major increase in space for the Department of Dance and is bigger than each the three studios it uses in the Arts Building and Athletics and Dance Building. It features modern lighting and wood flooring that absorbs shocks while allowing for flexibility and grip. Its sliding doors open to an outdoor performance area with a covered pavilion and a composite wood surface.
Jacqueline Shea Murray, a professor and director of the department, said faculty members are delighted with the new space, which has been named Studio 118.
“We’ve been in need of a dance studio for at least a decade if not more,” she said. “We kind of can’t believe it. We’re giddy to have a new space.”
About 50 dance department faculty and staff members and students celebrated Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 23 with a dance procession from the Arts Building to Studio 118. There, they danced for the first time in the new building, with each dancer taking turns in the center, performing in their own style.
(UCR/Stan Lim)
“It’s a stunning space,” said Anusha Kedhar, an associate professor of dance. “They’ve done it beautifully with a mix between indoor and outdoor spaces.”
DaEun Jung, an assistant professor of dance, said the new studio shows that UCR values arts while its design opening to the outdoor plaza connects the department closer to the wider campus.
“It refreshes everyone in a way you feel, ‘I can make art, I can rehearse more, I can practice more,’” she said. “This provides motivation and stimulation to the performing arts community, both to faculty members and students.”
The building features the first major new instructional wet labs in years with a significant upgrade in technology and design and increased storage space for equipment and materials.
Jon Allen, a lab research supervisor with the Evolution Ecology and Organismal Biology department, said the lab space accommodates more students and allows the department to expand the number of sections that have traditionally had long wait lists. That opens up space at Spieth Hall for other labs with long wait lists.
“The UTLF building is beautiful and spacious,” he said. “The large lab spaces are brightly lit by the large windows overlooking the campus.”
Len Mueller, chair of the chemistry department, described the new organic chemistry labs as “spectacular,” similarly allowing for a significant expansion of hands-on lab instruction in its most heavily subscribed courses.
“These new facilities give us both the capacity and the modern teaching environment we need to serve more students while maintaining an outstanding educational experience,” he said. “What is particularly exciting is that the building is much more than a collection of teaching laboratories. It has wonderful spaces for students to work together, interact with instructors, and continue learning outside the laboratory itself.”
