Bruins bring new life to Marymount campus
Land locked UCLA acquires 24 acre Marymount University campus
by Ralph Doyle
The Peninsula lost its only university when Marymount College University closed in April, another victim of the pandemic. The university, on 24 acres in Rancho Palos Verdes, overlooking the Catalina Channel, had been struggling to retain enrollment in recent years.
Many classrooms and faculty facilities offer panoramic views of the Pacific, and there are outdoor gathering areas with fireplaces and loggias.
The university received over 40 bids for the campus. To preserve the educational role it had served since its opening in 1960, and to preserve the pastoral, low profile design of the architectural firm of Welton Becket and Associates, Marymount chose UCLA as its buyer.
UCLA also acquired Marymount’s 81 townhomes on 11 acres on Antietam Street in San Pedro, for a combined price of $80 million
In a statement issued in September, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said, “We will establish a faculty, and administration task force to determine what kinds of academic programs the spaces might best support… It is my hope that we will have some programs operating on the sites as soon as 2023.
Along with classrooms and residences, UCLA acquired the former Caltholic University’s chapel.
Block said he anticipates the campus serving 3,350 graduate and undergraduate students by 2030.
The landlocked 419 UCLA campus in West Los Angeles, is the smallest of the University of California campuses. Last year a record 140,000 students applied for 6,600 first year openings.