Court of Sciences Student Center to open Tuesday
The new Court of Sciences Student Center provides a gathering space for south campus. Enjoy the garden rooftop or the light-filled indoor seating area. Photos by Heath Hewitt.
UCLA’s newest student center, and ASUCLA’s biggest project in 27 years, opens in the Court of Sciences on Tuesday (Feb. 21).
South Campus’ new
Court of Sciences Student Center rose in the footprint of the Bombshelter eatery, which was demolished in early 2010 to make way for center. The student center’s opening also brings to a close the popular food-truck visits to UCLA.
Starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Bruins can grab a cup of caffeine from the new building’s Southern Lights coffee outpost and pair it with a hot breakfast from ASUCLA’s Bombshelter Bistro. Yoshinoya, Subway, a snack shop and ASUCLA’s food-truck-inspired Fusion restaurant round out the offerings, providing the most
options at lunch time, said Cindy Bolton, the food director for the Associated Students of UCLA. The building will open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. each weekday except for Fridays, when it will close at 8 p.m.
Fusion's Vietnamese menu. Click to enlarge.
Fusion will focus on a different cuisine every day, with food-truck staples like tacos, sandwiches and burritos. Monday means Argentinian; Tuesdays feature Vietnamese; Wednesdays equal Indian; Thursdays are for Korean; and Friday must mean Mediterranean. Southern Lights will have the same prices as the campus' other coffee houses, while Fusion will likely charge $4 to $6 for its offerings, Bolton said. The Bistro will likely range from $6 to $8 for entrée plates and $5 to $8 for salads and sandwiches, she added.
Bolton oversaw a trial opening Friday for about 100 people, who enjoyed treats like Vietnamese banh-mi from Fusion and short ribs from the Bistro.
“After having worked on it for so many years, it’s kind of surreal to see it finally manifested, but it came out so beautifully,” Bolton said. “It’s really exciting to finally share it with the campus after planning it for so long.”
Lunchers dine in the light-filled student center.
It’s the student association’s biggest project since the construction of Lu Valle Commons in 1985, she said. A glass wall runs along the entire west side of the building’s long seating area, filling the room with natural light and a view of the outdoor patio, with additional seating. A warm wood paneling covers many of the interior walls, as well as the ceiling, which also features a skylight that runs the length of the structure.
“The architects gave it a really elegant, indoor-outdoor feel,” Bolton said.
The rooftop garden is a striking feature, with drought-tolerant plants and a lawn space for sitting. The building was designed
with lots of green touches to meet LEED sustainability standards, from a heavy reliance on natural light and a 'green' roof to subtler touches. The same bricks that now pave the courtyard once lined the Bombshelter patios. Also, the walls are panelled in bamboo rather than less-renewable wood. The indoor tables and countertops are all made of 100 percent recycled materials, and the outdoor tables are the same ones that used to service the Bombshelter – only with a new coat of paint.
Fusion's Vietnamese banh-mi sandwich.
"It will be a few months until we receive our LEED ranking, but we’re very confident we’ll get silver, and possibly gold,” Bolton said.
The food trucks that served as stand-in restaurants between the Bombshelter’s demise and the center's grand opening attracted a kind of cult following, but were never intended to be permanent, Bolton said.
Even with the hum of happy lunchers around her during Friday’s preview, Bolton said she wasn’t able to relax. “We still have to get to Tuesday’s opening,” she said. “There’s still a lot of work to do to make sure the first week goes well.”
