Campus construction and architecture
Caltech is small but prizes excellence and ambition, and that emphasis applies to architecture on the 124-acre campus as well as research and education. Here, you can find information about current construction and renovation projects, design honors, small business support, and the plans governing Caltech construction, with links to learn more.
Current projects
Caltech works to minimize any interference to traffic, parking, or quality of life caused by campus construction projects. However, we know disruptions are inevitable, and we appreciate your patience. Crews are required to follow city construction guidelines and safety protocols, and trucks use city-advised routes.
Ginsburg Center
From 2024 through mid-2026, Caltech will build the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Center for Quantum Precision Measurement.
"This new building will be a catalyst not only for scientific progress, but also for economic development and community enrichment throughout our region and beyond. I eagerly anticipate the breakthroughs the Ginsburg Center will make possible."
—Assemblymember Chris Holden, at an August 10, 2023, groundbreaking
The Ginsburg Center will expedite discoveries in multiple scientific fields and help students learn to collaborate at the rich interfaces of quantum physics, computer science, engineering, astronomy, chemistry, and biology.
To keep traffic flowing throughout the project, with the fewest possible closures and slowdowns, lanes on California Boulevard have been adjusted south and restriped. We are working to minimize noise and dust as the site is excavated, and we appreciate your patience. Please visit the Caltech Facilities website for further construction information, more in-depth updates, and FAQs.
Public meetings: We thank local and campus community members for coming to events and helping us refine plans to limit disturbance during construction. On June 11, the Design Commission held a public hearing for concept design review. On May 15, 2024, the City of Pasadena Planning and Community Development Department held a public hearing and approved a conditional use permit to build the Ginsburg Center. A design and construction open house was held on campus on October 10, 2023. These meetings included short presentations by Caltech Facilities Associate Vice President Dave Kang; Adaeze Cadet, an architect from HOK; and others.
Resnick Sustainability Center
Work is nearly complete on the Resnick Sustainability Center, a future hub for energy and sustainability research just north of San Pasqual Street on the east side of Wilson Avenue. Classes and research will begin in the building this fall. Also this fall, the landscape north of the building will be restored. Please visit the Caltech Facilities website for further information about this project.
Please email neighbor@caltech.edu with any construction-related questions or concerns.
The plan that governs Caltech construction
This plan, approved by the City of Pasadena, sets forth rules and guidelines for development on campus:
Recent design recognition
UNESCO Prix Versailles
The Chen Neuroscience Research Building won an international design prize, the UNESCO Prix Versailles for the world's most beautiful campuses. The award recognizes beauty, ecological efficiency, and the reflection of local, natural, and cultural heritage.
AILA honors the future Resnick Sustainability Center
The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles recognized the design for the future Resnick Sustainability Center with a 2021 NEXTLA Honor Award. The design is also featured in Dezeen, a prominent architecture and design magazine.
Pasadena Beautiful recognizes two recent Caltech projects
Pasadena Beautiful's 2021 Commercial Design Awards honored Caltech's garden-wrapped Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Neuroscience Research Building and a complex of 1920s bungalows that Caltech moved from the neuroscience building site to San Pasqual Street and carefully restored and landscaped. The awards, conferred every five years, recognize efforts to create exceptional landscapes that benefit the environment, the community, and people who work and live nearby.
Caltech supports local businesses
More than 70 small businesses earned a total of $36 million in 16 recent construction and renovation projects on Caltech's campus (as of 2021). And currently, the construction of the Resnick Sustainability Center involves and supports more than 100 workers.