Can university housing save downtowns? This law school is giving it a try

Major retailers like Macy’s and Nordstrom are shuttering their downtown locations, and small, locally owned businesses have closed their doors. Despite all this, San Francisco still has a high cost of living, with the third-highest rents among all large U.S. cities.  

In hopes of ending the “doom loop” of increasing vacancies, reduced tax revenues, and rising crime, the city’s mayor, London Breed, took the unusual step of asking educational institutions to invest in downtown real estate. She reasoned that students would benefit from affordable housing and proximity to the city’s cultural and professional opportunities, while their patronage would help revive struggling businesses. The city, in turn, would begin to recover revenue. 

The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (UC Law SF) was already thinking along these lines. Years earlier, leaders had started planning an “Academic Village” reimagining the campus, located at the nexus of the Civic Center, Mid-Market and Tenderloin communities, to develop a multi-institutional educational hub that combined teaching spaces with affordable student and trainee residences for graduate and professional school students.

“The idea of the Academic Village was born out of wanting to respond to the housing crisis in San Francisco for our own students and professionals,” says Rhiannon Bailard, chief operating officer at UC Law SF. “We soon realized we could help other institutions, too.” The University of California San Francisco (UCSF), for instance, expressed a strong interest in partnering to provide housing for its medical students studying at nearby Mission Bay and Parnassus Heights campuses. And the project promised more equitable access to higher education by making housing available to students from a wider range of economic backgrounds.

First to rise was the Cotchett Law Center, the school’s first new academic building in 40 years, and the next phase emphasized residential expansion. The Academe at 198, the first of two residential projects, opened in August 2023. By demolishing an existing classroom building and expanding to the site’s maximum allowable footprint, the university gained additional instructional space and 656 below-market apartments. The building’s lower floors include classrooms, a public auditorium, and a student law center that includes mock trial and appellate courtrooms. The residential floors offer graduate students, faculty, and staff from UC Law SF, UCSF, and other higher education institutions their choice of efficiency, studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom floorplans. Shared spaces, like communal kitchens and an indoor-outdoor lounge and terrace, provide residents with opportunities to intermingle.

In addition to integrating graduate students and professionals from different disciplines, The Academe encourages residents to support the surrounding community. “The design is transparent and inviting,” Bailard says. “It works in tandem with our effort to break out of this idea of higher education being siloed, both from an institutional perspective but also from a neighborhood perspective. We’re not only inviting people in. We’re inviting our residents to go out into the neighborhood, as well.” UC Law SF holds events in conjunction with nearby attractions like the Asian Art Museum, and the public can take advantage of free legal advice through the school’s pro bono program.  

The interchange leads to economic benefits, too, and Bailard sees signs that the neighborhood is turning around. Crime is down, and three nearby restaurants have either opened or reopened since The Academe came online.  

Next up, UC Law SF will renovate the historic 28-story McAllister Tower at the other end of the block. Currently in design, the tower will provide 280 beds in apartments ranging in size from one bedroom to six bedrooms to complement the smaller units in The Academe, along with new amenities and academic spaces on lower levels. The art deco building’s great hall and lobby will also be restored to their former splendor. 

“We’re the Tenderloin neighborhood’s anchor institution, and we are the economic driver on this two-block corridor,” Bailard says. “We’re good neighbors. We’re good partners. We aren’t bringing in a bunch of residents and just staying in the building. We’re immersing ourselves because the good of the Tenderloin results in the good of UC Law San Francisco, and we take that very seriously.”