Located on the northwestern end of the UC Irvine campus, the Anteater Learning Pavilion (ALP), holds classrooms and collaborative learning spaces for students and staff, and opened in the fall of 2018. The three-story building is 77,000 square feet and utilizes flexible spaces to promote active learning.
The pavilion is comprised of three floors: the first holds a 400-seat lecture hall, along with classrooms and study spaces. The second floor features a 250-seat lecture hall, classrooms, meeting spaces and computer labs, while the third contains computer labs and spaces reserved for the Learning and Academic Resource Center (LARC).
LMN Architects, a Seattle-based urban design and architectural firm, designed the ALP. The firm prides itself on its interdisciplinary approach, demonstrated by employing architects, urban designers, sustainability experts, design researchers and more.
LMN Architects has designed buildings at universities across the country, including Founders Hall at the University of Washington, the Computing and Data Science Building at Stanford University and the Interactive Learning Pavilion at UC Santa Barbara. LMN Architects also designed UCI’s Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building (ISEB).
In fact, both ISEB and ALP have the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification due to exemplary environmentally conscious performance.
According to the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is a metric system used to evaluate the sustainability and eco-friendliness of a building with four rankings: certified, silver, gold and platinum.
However, unlike ISEB and similar buildings on campus, the ALP was created to be a space specifically for active learning.
According to LMN Architects, the ALP is “the first active learning classroom building in the State of California, reinforcing UCI’s commitment and strategic plan to develop new educational facilities that foster pedagogical innovation across academic disciplines and programs.”
UCI’s Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI) heads up the active learning initiative, which seeks to move past rote memorization for exams and sitting in lectures. Instead, the initiative focuses on collaborative learning and interdisciplinary connections, along with conducting student-led research.
According to the DTEI site, the goal of active learning is to center the student rather than the instructor. One of the ways they accomplish this is by “[redesigning] campus learning spaces and [adopting] new technologies to better support and promote active and collaborative learning.”
The study spaces and tech-enhanced collaborative rooms enable students to be part of a wholesome learning environment with their peers. The quieter, library-like atmosphere also makes ALP a top choice for students looking to study or get work done.
First-year computer science student Ayeesha Pradhan has two classes at ALP — introduction to programming and precalculus and said she loves the building’s modern features.
“[The ALP is] a very productive study environment, I would say,” Pradhan told New University. “If I ever go to the ALP, before I have a class or an exam and I sit down to study there, I can actually study with focus, because everybody there is kind of studying [without] making too much sound.”
For information on how to book a study room at ALP, visit the AntCAVES Space Scheduler.
Shanaaz Faisal is a Features Intern for the fall 2025 quarter. She can be reached at shanaazf@uci.edu.
Edited by Alyssa Villagonzalo and Joshua Gonzales
