Scoping! And you can attend
A session on the proposed and revised hotel/conference center will be held – where else? – at the UCLA Faculty Center. See notice below. RSVP by Nov. 9 to mrule@support.ucla.edu See earlier posts on this project.
UCLA
Questions, Answers, & Comments Needed on Hotel/Conference Center
Now that we have arrived at the morning after on the hotel/conference center plan, it is important to consider what we don’t know. We don’t yet have a business plan. So we don’t have yearly projections of assumed revenues and expenditures. We don’t know what assumptions are being made about the demand on campus for conferences and overnight stays. We don’t know how the facility will be operated. Will it be staffed by UCLA employees? Contracted out? There appeared to be an error in the initial press release about assumed future local area competitive hotel rates. What are the actual…
Hotel/Conference Center: We await details
We now know the general outlines of the hotel/conference center revised plan but the devil is in the details. We know the project is not replacing the Faculty Center. But at least one error in FAQ section – reproduced in the prior post – has been found. The earlier proposal for the Faculty Center site had a projected room rate of $360/day when put on a basis corresponding to what the recent FAQ response says would be $185 before inflation. But the FAQ put that number as $270, not $360. So there is an inconsistency, apparently, that someone will have…
UCLA Hotel-Conference Center Plan Announced
As indicated in yesterday’s post, UCLA has announced its plans for the hotel/conference center (which does not displace the Faculty Club). Below are some highlights: Location: Central campus, at the end of Westwood Plaza near Pauley Pavilion, in the space currently occupied by Parking Structure 6 Projected Groundbreaking and Demolition: Summer 2013 Projected Completion: Winter 2016 Estimated Project Cost: Roughly $152 million ($40 million from UCLA donors Meyer and Renee Luskin and approximately $112 million in financing) Square Feet of Meeting Space: 25,000 Number of Guest Rooms: 250 Number of Stories: Seven Amenities: Restaurant, business center and fitness center Planned…
Quakers
CaliforniaWatch has an article on older concrete, and potentially earthquake-unsafe, buildings in the state (public and private) at http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/new-seismic-inventory-identifies-potentially-unsafe-buildings-13334 The report links to the underlying survey at http://www.eeri.org/wp-content/uploads/Concrete_Coalition_Final_0911.pdf Page 94 of the underlying survey says there are 12 such buildings at UCLA. A footnote with an incorrect link cites an earlier report on the subject of earthquake-unsafe buildings that listed a larger number of UCLA structures (not all of which are on the Westwood campus). Below is the earlier listing and the correct link to its source: Seismically hazardous buildings in the UC system 3/17/11 UCLA: Center for Health Sciences…
Halt or I’ll Compute!
UCLA mathematicians devise an algorithm based on data from the Los Angeles Police Department for the Hollenbeck area east of downtown Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times, October 31, 2011 A team of UCLA researchers has delved again into the world of crime fighting, this time developing a computer program capable of pointing police to potential suspects when feuds between rival gangs erupt into violence. The work is the latest contribution in the fast-emerging field of predictive policing — a broad area of study rooted in the notion that it is possible, through sophisticated computer analysis of information about previous crimes,…
No Satisfaction on the I-405
More bad traffic news if you are the type who works late at UCLA: The 405 Freeway contractor will begin demolition and reconstruction of the northern half of the Sunset Boulevard Bridge starting Monday, Oct. 31, for 12 consecutive nights. Construction work will take place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., with bridge demolition occurring between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Demolition of columns and bents is anticipated to take place on Wednesday, Nov. 9 through Friday, Nov. 11, 2011… Full article at http://www.smmirror.com/#mode=single&view=33337 Very unsatsifying:
Trick or Treat? Hotel/Conference Center Plan Coming Tomorrow
Word has it that the revised proposal for the hotel/conference center will not replace the Faculty Center. The plan – apparently to be announced tomorrow – is reported to put it where Parking Structure 6 is now located, near the West Center. See map to the left. So we will await the details. How scary could it be? By the day after tomorrow, you will know:
UCLA History: Exclusion Protest
The 405 is a mess nowadays due to construction. In 1966, it was briefly a mess when UCLA students invaded protesting exclusion from the Rose Bowl.
OMG
Drivers should expect delays along Sepulveda Boulevard in Westwood starting today and continuing for three months… As part of a $1 billion project to widen the San Diego (405) Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass, Chevron needs to move a gas line that runs underneath Sepulveda Boulevard. The move requires workers to drill underground, beginning near Sepulveda and Montana Avenue. The drilling exit point will be the intersection of Sepulveda and Moraga Drive. The work requires the closure of one southbound lane of Sepulveda adjacent to the drill’s entry and exit points, said Dave Sotero of Metro. Most of Sepulveda between…