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.