A newsletter for alumni, students, parents and friends.

Casa Zimbabwe: Construction Zone

By Eric Oelker
Casa Zimbabwe House Manager

Casa Zimbabwe, formerly the Ridge Project, has been closed since January 2007 for a seismic retrofit. Reopened for the Fall 2007 semester, the newly refurbished CZ features a remodeled and renovated kitchen with all new appliances, an expanded common room, a remodeled bathroom and laundry room, and a newly painted exterior. In addition, we’ve installed an elevator and modified several bedrooms to make the house wheelchair accessible.

Sixty-two of the house’s 124 residents are returning members from last fall.Though we’ve enjoyed our time living in the other co-ops, we anxiously awaited our return to CZ. Many of us devoted our time over the summer to ensure the house had a smooth and successful reopening. We have been collecting couches and building furniture to repopulate our common spaces as well as rewriting portions of our bylaws. We are sure that this enthusiasm will carry over into the 2007-2008 academic year.

After Casa Zimbabwe remodeling is completed, the USCA’s next major project is to retrofit Cloyne Court. Built in 1904, Cloyne is a Berkeley Historical Landmark. As with Casa Zimbabwe, the USCA hopes to minimize disruption of services to co-opers, and hopes that Cloyne will only be closed for one semesterand summer starting in Spring 2009, in anticipation for opening at full capacity in Fall 2009.

If you would like to help offset costs of keeping all our co-ops safe and accessible, you may contribute online to our Seismic Upgrades or Disabled Accessibility funds at www.usca.org/alumni/donate.

Eric is a Senior with a double major in Math and Physics. He has been a co-op member since Summer 2005.

Additional CZ Features

View our CZ Renovation & Reopening Photo Gallery.

Check out the 'CZ: Seismically Awesome' T-shirts!