By HFT Staff

The University of California (UC) Davis, the city of Sacramento and project developer Wexford Science and Technology broke ground on the university’s Aggie square project.  

Aggie Square is an innovation hub that brings together university research and teaching, industry and the community to create opportunities for communities across the region. It will be home to research programs, private industry partners, classrooms, student housing and public-facing programs that engage local communities and entrepreneurs. 

Construction on Phase 1 of the project will begin this spring. This phase includes two buildings designed for science, technology and engineering and a Lifelong Learning Building dedicated to classrooms and public programs. 

Aggie Square will address the need for additional research space in Sacramento, especially wet lab space for both academic and industrial use. It will help attract government and private research funding to Sacramento and UC Davis. 

An economic impact report completed in 2020 estimated that Aggie Square would add nearly $5 billion a year to the economy of the Sacramento region and generate 25,000 jobs. The construction phase will deliver an additional $2.6 billion in one-off economic impact and 15,000 job-years. 

UC Davis has already launched an undergraduate program for the project, Quarter at Aggie Square. Leveraging its proximity to UC Davis Health, the state capital and community organizations, this immersive program addresses topics of societal concern from multidisciplinary perspectives. The program began in fall 2020 offering experiences in health and educational equity and biomedical engineering.