The Hill residential complex Delta Terrace will be closed for a $7 million renovation during the 2015-2016 school year, officials said.
UCLA spokeswoman Rebecca Kendall said the renovations are part of the overall Hill renovation plan. Last year, Saxon Suites was closed for remodeling and Hitch Suites was updated the year before.
Kendall said work will begin in October and will impact all 198 student rooms and bathrooms, as well as lounges, faculty apartments and common areas.
The upgrades will include better communication systems and fire safety, more water pressure balancing valves for the bathrooms, building lighting and controls, thermostats and installation of drinking fountains.
Kendall said the four-story building has not been renovated since it first opened in 1991. She added that housing upgrades on the Hill usually rotate in a cycle based on which is the oldest.
Kendall said one building a year is usually closed for renovations.
“(UCLA Housing leaders) want students to feel like the buildings they are living in aren’t too outdated or old,” Kendall said.
Susan Li, a rising second-year economics and political science student who lived in Delta Terrace last year, said she wished the building had water fountains while she lived there.
“We had to borrow filters whenever we needed water,” Li said. “In general, (Delta Terrace) felt kind of old.”
Kristin Lew, a rising second-year psychobiology student, said she was especially concerned with bugs in her room at Delta Terrace.
“Ants were a huge issue,” Lew said. “They would come out of nowhere and it was not fun to deal with.”
Kendall said when the project is complete in fall 2016, all of UCLA’s on-campus housing will either have been newly built or freshly renovated within the past seven or eight years.