It used to be the “back 40,” remnants of the old state fairgrounds out behind the trailers that more than two decades ago comprised the university’s fledgling Sacramento campus.

Today the “back 40” includes the Education Building, the Center for Health and Technology, the Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center, research buildings, the Administrative Support Services Building, and the F. William Blasdell, M.D., Medical Library.

And, now, in the middle of all that, the university is developing the Larry N. Vanderhoef Commons, fulfilling a recommendation of the Sacramento campus’s 2010 Long-Range Development Plan, which called for “a large green quad or other major open space typically associated with an academic institution.”

The plan envisioned this open space as “the focal point and main gathering place for campus … for formal events such as graduation ceremonies and Thank Goodness for Staff luncheons, as well as daily uses such as studying, meeting or relaxing.”

The Vanderhoef Commons will be developed in phases, starting with a 1.5-acre oval southeast of the Education Building (on X Street). Story and slide show from the groundbreaking ceremony.

Mike Boyd, executive director of the Facilities Services Division at the UC Davis Health System, said the construction time line runs from August to November. The cost of Phase 1 is estimated at $750,000, to come from health system operations.

There is no time line for Phase 2, a southward extension to Second Avenue. The research and clinical lab buildings lie to the west of the planned extension, and a parking lot is on the east side, along 48th Street.

Other places with the Vanderhoef name

By the way, the chancellor emeritus already has a quad named after him, the Larry N. Vanderhoef Quad at the Davis campus’s south entrance. The Vanderhoef Quad is bounded by the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center, Gallagher Hall (Graduate School of Management) and the Conference Center, and the future Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

“Vanderhoef” signature banners surround the quad, and his signature also adorns banners in the vicinity of the Vanderhoef Commons.

UC Davis further honored Vanderhoef and his wife by renaming the Mondavi Center’s Studio Theatre, as the Larry and Rosalie Vanderhoef Studio Theatre.

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