Gavilan College’s new Library and Student Resource Center is about 75% complete and on track to open in early spring 2027, college officials say.
The $65 million facility in Gilroy is one of several campus improvement projects funded by Measure X, a facilities bond measure passed in 2018. The $248 million bond was approved by voters in Santa Clara and San Benito counties to fund upgrades and new construction across the Gavilan Joint Community College District.
The project was contracted to architecture firm JKAE for the design and Flint Builders for the construction, which is expected to wrap up in November 2026 ahead of the facility’s grand opening the following year.
The new building will consolidate services that are currently spread across campus, bringing together the library, admissions and records, financial aid and other student support services under one roof. College officials say the centralized layout is intended to make it easier for students to navigate the enrollment process.
“Say a student comes in who is the first in their family to attend college,” said Tanaya Stumpf, Gavilan’s director of marketing and communications. “They can start at admissions, and staff can walk them over to financial aid. Conversations that currently happen behind closed doors will now happen right there in person.”
The LSRC is located at the northeast corner of the campus, where it will serve as a port-of-entry for students arriving on campus from the main parking lot at the corner of Santa Teresa Boulevard and Mesa Road. The building will also become the new home for the school’s administration offices as well as the new boardroom for Gavilan’s Board of Trustees.
“Right now, all of our student services are scattered across campus,” said Dr. Pedro Avila, president and superintendent of Gavilan College. “This is going to allow us to have everything on the first floor for a student to be able to navigate from the welcome center with admissions, financial aid, counseling and all the other support services.”
The new facility will also include a Learning Commons housing the college’s tutoring center, writing lab, study rooms and breakout rooms.
Serafin Fernandez, Gavilan’s Director of Capital Projects, said the stacks area will be smaller than in the existing library, reflecting a reduced need for physical book storage, but the overall square footage of the building is roughly the same as the current facility.
“One thing we took into account is that libraries today don’t use as many physical books as before,” Fernandez said. “So the stacks area is smaller. The library was designed around the volume of books they wanted to maintain. However, we have added spaces that weren’t part of the existing library, like several study rooms.”
Among the upgrades is air conditioning, something the existing library lacks. The current building also suffers from an aging roof and “other limitations tied to current building code requirements,” Stumpf said.
College officials say the new building was designed to complement the existing architectural character of the Gilroy campus, while incorporating modern sustainability features. Once the LSRC opens, the existing library will eventually be demolished, though no specific timeline has yet been given.
For more information about the project including design specifics and renderings, as well as other Measure X-funded improvement projects, visit tinyurl.com/4xcsvrn4.
