UC Davis’ Sacramento and Davis campuses may be separated by a causeway, but recently they were brought together by design. Although final touches are still being added at Aggie Square ahead of its May 2 grand opening, power tools near two of the development’s brand-new, state-of-the-art classrooms took a brief break on March 12, 2025, as the spaces buzzed with both excited students and campus stakeholders, among them Chancellor Gary May.

The occasion? A studio review showcasing exciting landscape and graphic design ideas for the Sacramento campus from UC Davis undergraduates, with the rooms adorned with colorful posters and presentations.

Campus planner Steve Chaitow originated the idea of asking students to collaborate and brainstorm design ideas for the blank slate of Aggie Square. “I was really excited to find a design-centric way to bring the two campuses together,” said Chaitow. 

Chaitow approached professors in two different departments to ask their students to address the expanded Sacramento campus’s design needs. Haven Kiers of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design worked with her students to develop landscape master plans for the UC Davis Health Campus; their brief was to replace existing lawns and create cohesion across the campus using plants, with a focus on native plants. Tim McNeil of the Department of Design tasked his Environmental Graphic Design class with creating a system of informational and wayfinding graphics and signage, with a unified color theme, typography and pictograms.

Students worked on the quarter-long projects in small groups, developing comprehensive design concepts for the real-world space of Aggie Square—a rare opportunity for undergraduates, both professors emphasized. Their process was enriched by site visits to Aggie Square via the free, zero-emission Causeway Connection bus service, as well as by a conversation with Blake Coren, ZGF Architects’ project manager. 

Before the studio review, the two classes also met to share and critique each other’s work, a cross-fertilization that made the design process even more educational. “In reality, you would never design in isolation, right? The team would have landscape architects and graphic designers working together with the architects,” McNeil said. “So, this process simulated the real world very well.” 

The students’ design concepts varied widely. One graphic design project by students Becky Li, Akari Nakashima, Juliana Renert, and Kenny Yu took inspiration from University of California motto “Fiat Lux” (meaning “let there be light”), which is literally built into the brick work at Aggie Square. Landscape architecture student Priscilla Jimenez Corrales called her community space “The Green Heart” and used trees also planted on the Davis campus quad to link the university’s diverse spaces. Another group, comprising students Jatziry Aviles, Sasha Rubeiz, Lyn Mejia and Sahar Sadeghi, proposed a “Habitat for Health” that would aim to foster the interconnected health of patients, staff, the surrounding community and even local wildlife. 

Students and professors alike were enthusiastic about the cross-disciplinary, cross-campus opportunity. “One of the cool things is that we were actually the first 60 Davis students to walk the Aggie Square campus, so it felt very special,” said student Juliana Renert. “And at the end we got to present all our ideas and hear feedback from the actual architects and planners. It’s definitely a great experience.” 

Haven Kiers agreed. “Students are excited because it’s a legitimate site, and they were able to pick an area that interested them that they could dive into. They weren’t just producing work because it was due,” she said. “It’s been phenomenal.”