SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A big announcement in San Francisco on Tuesday. Vanderbilt University is officially bringing a campus to the city, according to Mayor Daniel Lurie.
Vanderbilt University is officially bringing a full time academic campus to San Francisco starting in the 2027-2028 academic year, pending approval from regulatory authorities.
Vanderbilt, a private research university, will take over the spaces currently being used by the California College of the Arts in the Showplace Square neighborhood of San Francisco, adjacent to Mission Bay.
California College of the Arts winds down operations in 2027 due to financial difficulties.
California College of the Arts board chair Calvin Wheeler expressed sorrow for the school’s closure in a press release, but optimism after talks with Vanderbilt.
“On behalf of CCA’s Board of Trustees, I want to acknowledge both the challenge of this moment, as well as the opportunity,” said Wheeler. “For nearly 120 years, CCA has been providing an innovative arts and design education to students from the San Francisco Bay Area, across California and around the world. At the same time, given our financial challenges, we recognize that this agreement with Vanderbilt is the best opportunity to carry forward this legacy, and we are grateful to Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and Mayor Daniel Lurie for supporting our work during this time.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie said this is a big day for the city, as he pushes to attract more businesses and institutions while helping San Francisco with its post-pandemic recovery in a lasting way.
“Vanderbilt’s decision sends a powerful message. It says that San Francisco remains one of the world’s great places to live, to learn, and to innovate. It says that this city is still a place where new ideas are born, tested, and created,” he said. “We invited their leadership team here. We showed them our downtown it is today and where it’s going next.”
“Our goal in a sentence is to create a place that creates creators…will enable our students and our faculty to engage in experiential learning, internships, venture creation and research,” said Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier.
The San Francisco campus expects to serve about 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
Residential housing will be provided for undergrad students.
Vanderbilt looked at various sites in the city, but settled on the California College of the Arts campus.
Chancellor Diermeier says in the months ahead, they will finalize academic programming and seek to finalize regulatory approvals.
He says Vanderbilt will also be supporting and working with CCA in their wind down operations.
Vanderbilt said it would honor the legacy of California College of the Arts by establishing the new California College of the Arts Institute at Vanderbilt, a center officials said will expand the university’s visual arts offerings for students.
News of the expansion excited District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents the area where the campus will be located.
“This is really ambitious, and I think people really need to understand that this is a world-class institution that is making a long-term investment in San Francisco and the opportunities for synergy here,” said Dorsey. “I think this is just incredibly important to the future of San Francisco, future of our economy and the neighborhood that is going to benefit from it in the Showplace Square and Design District area.”
Diermeier said he would not disclose how much money was involved in the agreement, but said the university worked extensively to make a long-term financial plan that would ensure the new school’s presence in the city for decades.
Vanderbilt recently moved to expand into New York City, Chattanooga, and West Palm Beach. San Francisco marks the newest addition to its portfolio of campuses outside of its home state of Nashville, Tennessee.
Bay City News’ Andres Jimenez Larios contributed to this report
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