Thursday, February 27, 1997
CONSTRUCTION:
Aging villa, once restored, is expected to house new
chancellorBy Gil Hopenstand
Daily Bruin Staff
UCLA is doing more for its yet-unnamed chancellor than put out a
welcome mat  it’s putting out a villa.
The 10,600 square-foot mansion north of the University Research
Library is undergoing renovations in preparation for new tenants
expected to arrive in June.
The University Residence, as it is officially known, has been
vacant since 1991 when Chancellor Charles Young and wife Sue moved
out due to its poor shape.
Young has long said that the 67-year-old house has fallen into
disrepair, with damage caused by a fire in an electrical generator
several years ago which interrupted a reception for possible
donors.
"There is a plan to do a substantial amount of work between now
and the first of July, with the expectation that the new chancellor
will be living there," Young confirmed this week.
And while University of California officials haggle over whom
the next chancellor will be, the Mediterranean-style house
surrounded by seven acres of lush landscaping awaits.
UCLA is spending up to $50,000 to remove asbestos and repair the
house’s electrical, plumbing and telephone systems.
"(Electrical) circuits are taxed and there’s no room for
expansion," said James Mertes, a senior superintendent for
Facilities Management.
"It’s (also) fairly standard to find galvanized pipe in old
residences," Mertes continued, detailing that copper pipes will be
installed in a process called "repiping."
A separate bid will soon be out to fix the building’s
seismically unsafe brick construction. Greg Pierce of Capital
Programs estimated those costs at around $290,000.
The two-story home served Young and his family for 23 years
before they moved to a gated Woodland Hills community in 1991.
Since then, the regents have provided him with a housing stipend
and the house has gone without tenants.
Yet the on-campus villa has continued to serve as a venue for
formal ceremonial, fund-raising and social entertaining, such as
the reception and awards presentation in April 1995 for Pakistani
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
But because the building is structurally unsafe, officials ruled
out the first-floor formal rooms, lined with valuable paintings,
and the wood-paneled library, stocked with books and sculptures.
Entertaining is instead held out on the large brick patio under
expensive tents.
Seismic repairs should be complete by early May and, although
both facilities and Capital Programs crews will be on site
together, "the two shouldn’t be in each other’s way," Pierce
said.
SHAWN LAKSMI/Daily Bruin
The University Residence, meant to house the chancellor, is
undergoing sizable renovation.