Campus prepares to open Sage Hall after nearly three years of construction

Sage Hall’s construction proceeding on the northwest side of campus on Fulton Ave. on Sep. 28. It is set to house several of the campus’s old programs as well as serving as a cybersecurity hub.

Built to replace aging buildings in the center of campus, five departments are going to be housed in a new state-of-the-art facility to greet students in the spring. 

By: Cassandra Jones, Staff Writer

Construction on the two-story Sage Hall on the west edge of the campus is nearly complete after over two years, with classes planning to be held in the new facility starting in the spring.

“It’s going to be an absolutely amazing, beautiful building,” Valley President Barry Gribbons said. “This is the last of our three major new buildings, so it kind of completes the campus in many ways.” 

Originally called Academic Building 2, it sits off the main quad, between the library and the music building, replacing the old theater complex.

Funded by Measure CC and part of the college’s $704 million “ReVitalizing Valley” program, the building will include “modern, technology-enabled learning environments for communication studies, English, ESL and technology, which includes our manufacturing program,” according to Gribbons.

“It’s a beautiful space, done with a beautiful yellow, but I think all of us in the English department are sentimentally attached to this building,” said English professor Kimberly Robeson about the old humanities building. “It felt like home, but we are still very excited about the change.”

The new 60,931-square-foot Sage Hall is set to replace three aging buildings, according to PCL Construction, whose crews broke ground on the $60.5 million facility on April 22, 2024. BuildLACCD planning documents list separate demolition projects for each department building, with work expected to start in late 2027.

The building is also designed to earn LEED Silver certification for energy efficiency and environmental design.  

The facility is set to include computer labs, robotics and electronics labs, a media room and shared spaces for students and faculty. 

The first floor will have a technology lab for students in the manufacturing program. Gribbons said, “It will have wonderful classrooms and offices, and one unique feature will be the machine shop, or the technology center.”

Students Ricardo Hernandez and Sofia Davtyan are both excited about the new building on campus. “Overall I'm very excited, it looks very cool, very clean,” said Hernandez. Davtyan echoed the same sentiment, “I'm pretty excited, it looks nice.”

Another project, Valley Academic Hall, opened earlier this year with new spaces for business, computer information systems, emergency services, mathematics and psychology, according to the LAVC Foundation.

The new buildings together have added about 279,000 square feet to the campus. Once Sage Hall opens, Gribbons said, “we’ll continue to do construction, but our focus will shift to some remodels and infrastructure.”

The college has not announced which classes will move in first, but faculty from the humanities program were offered to tour the building ahead of its completion last Friday. 

Gribbons said, “[We’re] planning on it being used for instruction in the spring semester, but we don’t have a written schedule yet.”

Classrooms will have movable desks so instructors can switch between lectures and group work, and the rooms can be rearranged for different teaching styles. Faculty offices will all be on the same floor so instructors can work together and share resources.

“It’ll just be exciting to have Sage Hall added to the campus inventory,” Gribbons said.