ENR West 2026 California Owner of the Year: UC Davis

ENR West has named the University of California, Davis, as the 2026 California Owner of the Year. The award recognizes the school’s ambitious and wide-ranging capital program, reshaping both its academic and healthcare infrastructure.

At UC Davis Health, the $7.5-billion Vision 2030 program underscores the institution’s commitment to expanding care capacity. Its flagship project, the California Tower, will add substantial inpatient, surgical and imaging capabilities. When completed in 2030, the 14-story building will provide 909,000 gross square feet of new space space including 334 new inpatient beds, patient rooms constructed as Acuity Adaptable rooms and ICU and medical/surgical patient rooms.

Across its Davis and Sacramento campuses, the university is advancing a series of large-scale projects aligned with long-term growth, research expansion and student needs. These include the Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation, the Veterinary Medicine capital growth program and an update to student housing.

A centerpiece of this effort is the $1.15 billion first phase of Aggie Square, a 25-acre mixed-use innovation district in Sacramento. With most buildings complete, the development will integrate life sciences labs, incubator space, housing, classrooms and retail, strengthening ties between university research and private industry.

Further demonstrating the breadth of UC Davis’ capital program, the university is opening the $66.4 million Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation this year, continuing development of student housing to add 1,500 beds in the next five years, and advancing more than $500 million in projects as part of the Weill School of Veterinary Medicine’s capital expansion.  

You can read more about UC Davis in the April issue of ENR West.