California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) is set to add new student housing. Construction of the first major modular housing project started on October 22, 2025, the university said on its website.
The $1.2 billion housing program, part of a multi-phase housing plan, is expected to add more than 3,000 new beds in a suite-style design.
The residential units will be organized in three-bedroom suites, with each bedroom having double occupancy. Each suite will have two bathrooms and a shared living space. All buildings will include community spaces, study lounges, and kitchens.
The residence hall room and common spaces will be fabricated in an off-site factory and assembled on the campus. This modular construction plan reduces time and makes the project affordable and efficient, Cal Poly said on its website.
Six residence halls at the South Mountain site, which are over 60 years old, will also undergo significant renovations. The residence halls will remain open during construction, with no loss of bed spaces.
The program consists of phased housing projects at the current North Mountain residence halls (Lassen, Diablo, Shasta, Palomar, and Whitney) and the K-2 parking site, a portion of campus previously used for parking.
The construction is currently in the modular stacking phase.
The university has arranged a public viewing platform near Fremont Hall. A live camera feed of the construction will be available online.
Earplugs are available for students affected by the construction noise.
Cal Poly is partnering with FullStack Modular for the new buildings. Steinberg Hart is serving as the project’s architect, and Whiting-Turner is the design-build contractor.
Future Housing Plan
The modular housing program is part of Cal Poly’s 10-year Future Housing Plan to upgrade the residential student experience.
Over the next 10 years, the university aims to add around 4,000 beds to campus housing across nine buildings.
The first phase of construction began in August 2024 and is scheduled to open in fall 2026 and fall 2027. Subsequent phases will open every year thereafter, the university said.
The last leg of the new construction is expected to be completed in 2030.
Once new construction is completed, the university envisions that all second-year students will be able to live on the San Luis Obispo campus.
The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees approved the program concept and first phase of the plan on July 23, 2024.
The project also addresses California’s housing crisis. The modular construction enables Cal Poly to address the challenges of mounting construction costs, FullStack Modular said in a previous news release.
Cal Poly’s housing plan is the first large-scale use of modular construction within the CSU system, the release noted.
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I like what CalPoly’s doing with this. Pre constructed, prefab housing built offsite. UCSB is currently building another big dorm and it’s using old school standard construction, and it will take a heck of a lot longer than what Poly is doing, that’s for sure. Likely more costly as well.