The Strategic Plan Goal 5 – Become a More Effective Institution includes a priority initiative called “Effectively Utilize Campus Space,” which strives to identify the opportunities and benefits that flexible work environments can provide, and allocate space based on fair standards and defined outcomes.
Summer Session Pilot
The Summer Space use group will utilize 30 buildings this summer for summer sessions, UNEX and the Events Office to optimize summer space use to reduce costs and energy. Perloff Hall (1 of 30 bldgs) will be available for one month only (June 30 – July 20) due to intensive use and unique program setup. After July 20, Perloff will be removed from active use (reduced A/C or cleaning).
Introduction
In alignment with UCLA's Strategic Plan Goal 5—Become a More Effective Institution—the Summer Session Space Pilot Program is part of a broader suite of Space Optimization Pilot initiatives aimed at transforming how the university utilizes its physical footprint. With approximately 75% of summer courses offered online, this pilot presents a significant opportunity to consolidate in-person activity into a smaller number of buildings, reducing operational costs and energy consumption.
This initiative directly supports the goals of the Space Oversight Committee (SOC) and advances UCLA’s long-term vision for a more efficient, sustainable, and adaptable campus. By leveraging data-informed strategies and cross-unit collaboration, the program contributes to a university-wide shift toward smarter, more intentional space planning that better aligns resources with actual usage patterns—particularly during the summer term.
The Summer Session Space Pilot Program is led and implemented by a cross-functional project team that meets weekly and includes representatives from Facilities Management (FM), Academic Planning and Budget (APB), Organizational Effectiveness & Development (OED), Financial & Administrative Services (F&A), the UCLA Events Office, the Registrar’s Office, University Extension, and Summer Sessions. The program is overseen by the Administrative Vice Chancellor, with support and sponsorship from the Space Oversight Committee, co-chaired by UCLA’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost and the Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer.
This committee is responsible for implementing senior leadership’s vision for UCLA’s long-term use of on- and off-campus space, establishing campus-wide guidelines regarding space usage, and developing policies to promote effective space governance.
The primary goals of the Summer Session Space Pilot Program are to:
- Reduce Operational Costs: By limiting the number of buildings in use, the university can significantly cut down on expenses related to maintenance, utilities, and cleaning.
- Enhance Energy Efficiency: Consolidating activities allows for decreased energy consumption, contributing to UCLA's sustainability commitments.
- Optimize Resource Allocation: Focusing resources on fewer buildings ensures better support for ongoing programs and events during the summer.
- Inform Future Space Management: Data collected during this pilot will guide long-term strategies for campus space utilization.
During Summer 2025, the number of buildings used to support Summer Sessions, events, and UNEX activities on the core campus will be reduced from 41 to 30 buildings, a 27% reduction in the number of buildings needing full-service support during the summer. This strategic consolidation is designed to streamline operations and enhance sustainability efforts.
The buildings that will not be utilized during the summer by Summer Sessions, UNEX, or the Events Office are noted below. They may still be utilized for administrative and research activities. Building support functions in these buildings will be adjusted to correspond with the lower usage.
Summer 2025 – Core Campus Buildings Not Utilized by Summer Session, Events, and UNEX Activities (Used for Administrative and Research Activities in Summer)
- Boyer
- Bunche Hall
- Dodd Hall
- Engineering Building 4
- Engineering Buliding 5
- Hershey Hall
- Perloff Hall (Aug - Sep)
- Rolfe Hall
- Royce Hall
- SEIS
- Young Hall (CS24, CS50, CS76)
Perloff Hall will remain operational from June 30 to July 20 due to its intensive use and unique program setup. After July 20, it will be removed from active use, including suspension of air conditioning and cleaning services.
For more details and resources related to summer programs, please refer to the following:
- UCLA Summer Sessions: https://summer.ucla.edu/
- UCLA Extension (UNEX): https://www.uclaextension.edu/
- UCLA Events Office: https://events.ucla.edu/
Q: How will energy use be managed in buildings used for Summer 2025 classes and events?
A: The Energy Services & Building Controls team is aligning HVAC operations in the 29 designated buildings with confirmed class and event schedules. Off-hour setbacks will be applied wherever possible to reduce unnecessary energy use.
We also expect these adjustments to reduce chilled water demand during peak periods, thereby improving cooling system stability and reducing operational costs.
Q: How will Facilities respond if there’s a summer heatwave or utility curtailment?
A: Energy Services is developing curtailment protocols that focus on reducing energy loads without compromising indoor air quality. These include adjustments to outside air dampers, equipment staging, and real-time monitoring. The Energy Services and Summer Session teams will coordinate to minimize disruptions while maintaining buildings within comfort standards.
Q: Are the Court of Sciences lecture halls (CS24, CS50, and CS76) available for use this summer?
A: No, these rooms will not be available for summer 2025. Rooms inside the Geology Building will be available for summer use. Rooms in Young Hall will not be available for summer use. Rooms CS24, CS50, and CS76 are also unavailable for use in the summer 2025.
Q: How will classroom space be allocated for Summer 2026 and beyond?
A: Summer space planning will continue to be an adaptive, demand-driven process. Each year, instructional and event space will be evaluated based on confirmed program enrollments and use requests.
Space Occupancy Pilot
Another project supporting this priority initiative is the Space Occupancy Pilot, which involves space-use technologies to enhance data environments, evaluate occupancy accurately and at scale, optimize energy demand management and enable data-driven space decisions. The data collected from the pilot will allow space planners, departments, and occupants to review their space uses, occupancy trends, and other patterns related to occupancy over a period of time such as peaks, average use, and total traffic.
The planning for the Space Occupancy Pilot launched in October 2024 with the goal of deploying occupancy sensors to five buildings on campus beginning February 2025. This pilot is overseen by the Space Oversight Committee co-chaired by UCLA’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost and the Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer. The space occupancy project utilizes occupancy detection devices to provide building and floor occupancy information to:
- Improve the campus's efficiency, sustainability, and functionality.
- Ensure campus resources are used effectively to support the growing needs of students, faculty, and staff.
- Reduce costs, align with sustainability goals and minimize the campus's environmental footprint.
- Facilitate smarter decision-making, resource allocation, and maintenance, ensuring a well-maintained and forward-thinking campus environment.
- Charles Turner (FOS)
- Jack Tchilingirian (FM)
- Amit Singh (FM)
- Robert Striff (FM)
- Sean Wilder (FM)
- Valerie Vahling (ITS)
- Ju Kim (ITS)
- Larry Armstrong (ITS)
- Chris Bates (ITS)
- Hilda Duggan (ITS)
- Chris Lechner (ITS)
- Gerrie Zvara (OED)
- Amanda Ogden (OED)
- Install occupancy sensors in selected UCLA locations.
- Gather occupancy data to assess space utilization.
- Integrate real-time occupancy data with HVAC building controls to minimize energy consumption.
- Contribute to UCLA’s institutional effectiveness and resource efficiency goals.
- Five Buildings total
- Occupancy Data Collected at Full Floor Level or Department Level
- Three Data Collection Systems: ITS WiFi, Occuspace, Butlr
- Test Direct Digital Control (DDC) Integration Capabilities at Young
Building | Data Collection System | Floor Level Data | Department Level Data |
Murphy Hall | Occuspace, ITS WiFi | A, 1, 3, 4 | Floor 2 |
Mathematical Sciences | Butlr, ITS WiFi | 1,2,3 | 4 & RRs |
Young Hall | Bultr, ITS WiFi | Floor level data and DDC in 3 lecture halls | |
Psychology | Occuspace, ITS Wifi | 1, 2, 3, A | n/a |
Life Sciences | Occuspace, ITS Wifi | 1, 5, A | 2, 3, 4 |
Data collected from the space use pilots will inform various analyses and decision processes related to space use, operations, energy use, and space planning. Some examples include:
- Energy reduction and optimization for rooms with integrated heating and air conditioning (HVAC) controls,
- Dynamic service delivery including the flexible deployment of custodial teams to locations with the highest traffic, and
- Space use planning opportunities where underused or unused spaces can be reallocated based on fair standards and defined outcomes.
Data from the pilot project will be safely collected and stored in databases overseen by IT Services. Dashboards will be created to visually display key metrics by building, floor, and neighborhood (zone within a floor). Data will also be shown based on historical trend, daily/hourly use, average occupancy, peak occupancy, and other metrics. The dashboards are under development through Spring 2025 and will be presented to the Space Oversight Committee for their input and feedback. Subsequently, the dashboards will be refined and shared with various stakeholders including the specific building coordinators, chairs, deans, and various operational units involved in the pilot. A broader rollout may occur once the dashboards and primary stakeholders have provided feedback on the dashboard design and data sets.
UCLA selected Occuspace as a sensor vendor for this pilot. To start, these sensors meet UCLA’s privacy policies and requirements related to privacy and securing sensitive data. The vendor provides a layer of privacy protection which anonymizes data for all devices it senses in the zone of the building floor. Some of the safeguards worth noting related to Occuspace sensors include:
- Occuspace collects zero personally identifiable information (PII) and is fully GDPR and CCPA compliant
- Occuspace sensors never connect to any devices, and can only passively observe the Bluetooth (BLE) and WiFi activity in a space being measured
- Occuspace does use a unique identifier for each BLE and WiFi signal being measured. This unique identifier is based on the broadcasted MAC address of each radio
- Modern smartphones, laptops, and other consumer devices randomly rotate the MAC address of the BLE and WiFi radios for consumer protection
- Occuspace further enhances privacy by irreversibly hashing the broadcast MAC addresses into the unique identifiers used in data analysis
- MAC addresses are irreversibly hashed immediately on the sensor itself with the original MAC address value never stored locally or in the cloud
- Hashing is performed with SHA256 and reduced (truncated) in size to make it impossible to reverse
- The sensors only transmit hashed data to the Occuspace cloud
- After hashed data is successfully sent to Occuspace it is permanently deleted from the sensors
Butlr utilizes thermopile technology (body heat signatures) to detect and measure space utilization.
-- Butlr is completely anonymous at the source - ie. +1/-1 technology for a space, not able to ID or track
-- Butlr's data is all hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS-West 2)
-- Butlr sensors communicate to Hives (networking gateways) via a proprietary mesh networking protocol.
-- Butlr is SOCII Type 2 certified and uses industry standard encryption methodologies - both AES-256 encryption for at-rest data and TLSv1.2 for in transit communication.
-- Event data from Butlr sensors is analyzed and computed and output into Butlr's web application platform which is accessible via a username/password.
