The UC Santa Cruz campus is extremely unique among its sibling UC institutions. The central campus begins where the meadows and the forest meet, and it extends north into the forested lands. At the center is the academic and service “core” of institutionally scaled buildings -- libraries, lecture halls, laboratories and other research facilities, art studios and performance venues, bookstore and student activity buildings -- surrounded on three sides by smaller scale clusters of residential colleges and housing. The campus’s Physical Design Framework encourages concentrated development in both the core and the colleges in order to leave as much land as possible in its natural state, avoid sprawl, and support pedestrian movement. As a result, it can be quite a challenge to understand how the campus is laid out, and more specifically, where you can find certain resources.

The following map resources are offered to help you make sense of this wonderful but complex campus.