From Cooling Tower to Campus Retreat

What began as a project to remove an abandoned cooling tower near Kerr Hall has transformed a once-overlooked corner of core campus into a new outdoor gathering space for the UC Davis community.

Installed when Kerr Hall was built in 1969, the cooling tower originally provided cooling for the building. After Kerr Hall was connected to the campus cooling loop, the equipment was no longer needed and remained unused inside its enclosure.

Over time, the enclosure became both an aesthetic and safety concern. Located near the Memorial Union, Wellman Hall, California Hall and the Main Quad, the site sits in an area traveled by large numbers of students each day. Despite repeated attempts to secure the enclosure, it was regularly broken into, exposing old electrical equipment, rusted metal and machinery.

The concern eventually caught the attention of the Facilities Management Energy Engineering team. After confirming that the cooling tower was no longer serving Kerr Hall, the team identified an opportunity to pursue Be Smart About Safety funding to remove the equipment.

“The main motivation was to remove the cooling tower and its enclosure to make that spot on the core campus safer, more attractive and more welcoming,” said Nico Fauchier-Magnan, who leads the Energy Engineering team within Facilities Management. 

Planning began in 2023, followed by a successful funding application in 2024. Funding was awarded in January 2025, and demolition began that spring. The original scope called for removing the enclosure, cooling tower and associated electrical, water and sewer utilities before restoring the area.

The enclosure was demolished first, followed by the cooling tower itself. Facilities Management’s Sheetmetal Shop disassembled the tower into sections and used a lift to load the pieces onto a truck for recycling. The team then worked with the Electrical Shop to remove old electrical panels and safely address remaining wiring and conduit. 

But as demolition progressed, the project took an unexpected turn.

Rather than removing everything and returning the area to soil and mulch as originally planned, project leaders recognized that the remaining concrete could become the foundation for something more useful. The support structures that once held the cooling tower were already close to the ideal height for seating, while mature trees surrounding the site provided shade and separation from nearby buildings. 

With support from Executive Director of Utilities & Engineering Joshua Morejohn and Campus Landscape Architect Christina Reyes, Associate Campus Landscape Architect Mayton Xu was brought in to develop a new vision for the space. Instead of spending the remaining demolition budget to remove and haul away the concrete, the team began exploring how it could be reused.

“A project slated to be purely demolition was able to be thoughtfully reevaluated and redefined as an upcycled parklet halfway through,” Xu said. “The support from project leaders and the amazing internal talents within Facilities enabled this transformation to be successful.” 

That transformation brought together several Facilities Management teams. The Masonry Crew modified the existing concrete supports to provide legroom around the new tables and created openings for planting. The crew also poured a new pathway and repaired rough areas to provide safe, universal access to the site.

The Sheetmetal Mechanic Shop helped turn the parklet design into reality by reviewing the durability and feasibility of the custom tables, fabricating and welding their metal components, coordinating powder coating and mounting them directly onto the former cooling tower supports. Grounds Irrigation Specialists added new irrigation and Groundskeepers planted drought-tolerant shrubs, groundcovers, succulents and a screen tree around the space. 

The finished design creates what Xu envisioned as a miniature parklet with café-style tables. Different table heights, shapes and orientations allow visitors to sit together or independently, while colorful finishes, detailed tabletop supports and distinctive plantings bring a sense of playfulness to the space. The newly constructed path and closest table are also ADA compliant. 

While seating is plentiful around the nearby Memorial Union, much of it is located in open, active spaces. Surrounded by mature trees and set back from Wellman, Kerr and Wickson halls, the new parklet offers a quieter alternative in the middle of a busy part of campus.

Xu said opportunities to create outdoor gathering spaces can be difficult to preserve within project budgets, making the parklet especially meaningful.

“It feels incredibly special and exciting that we were able to provide a space complete with access routes, customized furnishing, irrigation, and planting for everyone’s enjoyment,” Xu said. 

The parklet also complements other recent improvements in the area. Landscape Architecture and Site Planning (Reyes and Xu + their student interns) previously redesigned the bicycle parking east of Kerr Hall to increase capacity and accommodate spaces displaced by the Coffee House Patio Expansion project. and designed the raised crossing on West Quad Street to improve pedestrian visibility, safety, and access to the Coho from the redeveloped bike parking area. The Kerr upcycled parklet now marks the western end of that improved corridor, with the newly completed Coho patio bookending it on the east side.

Built largely from infrastructure that was already there, the project demonstrates how a straightforward safety improvement can evolve through collaboration and creative reuse. Concrete designed decades ago to support mechanical equipment now serves as seating, while custom tables, new landscaping and an accessible pathway have turned the former cooling tower site into a place for the campus community to gather.

What was once an abandoned piece of equipment hidden behind an enclosure is now designed to offer something entirely different: a small moment of respite in the heart of campus.