UC Riverside celebrated its new instructional building with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, Oct. 13 attended by about 175 people, including campus leaders and area elected representatives.
The four-story, 100,700-square-foot Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Facility, or UTLF, was completed over the summer and held its first classes with the start of the fall quarter on September 24. It was built on former parking Lot 19, south of the UCR Soccer Stadium.
With a seating capacity of about 1,700, it includes two lecture halls, 19 small-to-mid-sized classrooms, six biology labs, and four chemistry labs. It also includes a 3,400-square-foot dance studio that expands into an additional 2,700-square-foot outdoor performance area, where Tuesday’s ceremony was held.
The new building will help meet the demand for classroom space from UCR’s growing enrollment and is part of $1.5 billion in campus construction in this decade. The building provides an overall 18% increase in general assignment seats, a 54% increase in biology class lab seats, and a 20% increase in chemistry lab seats over the current campus capacity.
In his speech, UC Riverside Chancellor S. Jack Hu noted that the campus saw its largest enrollment of students in 2025 and second largest this year.
“As our student enrollment grows, so must our programs and physical capacity to support their success,” he said. “This means investing in classrooms, laboratories, housing, and outer spaces where students study, collaborate, discover, and develop meaningful life skills. Our commitment is reflected in this beautiful building that we celebrate today.”
Among the speakers at the event were Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, UC Regent and Chair Maria Anguiano, and Riverside County Supervisor Jose Medina, who as an assemblymember helped obtain state funding for the $156 million project.
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Watkins said the building is designed around how students learn today, with modern labs and flexible classrooms that shift between lectures and collaborative learning.
“When students walk into this building, which they've been doing for the past two weeks, the message is unmistakable: your education is our priority, and you belong here,” she said. “Seeing our faculty and students fill these labs, classrooms, and informal study spaces since the start of the fall quarter has just been incredibly rewarding.”
Campus Architect Jacqueline Norman described UTLF as a big project but with many small details that will shape how the space is experienced. Those include the familiar UCR brick, large interior windows where students can observe labs or the dance studio, and a third-floor reading room with natural light and views of the mountains. She ended her remarks with one final detail: “the illuminated stair tower that at night becomes a beacon and the very literal expression of ‘Fiat Lux’; let there be light. I hope UTLF will light the way for generations of UCR students.”
