At the University of California, Davis, a funky 1970s experiment in communal living is closing this year while a 21st century eco-friendly neighborhood is rising nearby.

The student housing projects — one homegrown by hippies, the other built by developers — bookend the environmental movement’s journey from counterculture to mainstream.

But as UC Davis prepares to raze its Domes and open West Village, not everyone is celebrating.

The Domes

At the Domes, two dozen students live in 14 igloolike huts surrounded by organic gardens, chickens and fruit trees.

Residents share vegetarian dinners in a communal yurt, gather on weekends to tend the grounds, and make decisions through community consensus. They strum guitars, talk around a long picnic table and watch hummingbirds feed. The little village is called Baggins End, a reference to “The Hobbit.”

The rent is $226 a month.

“This is a utopian place to live,” said Ilan Cohen, 23, a Domes resident.

The community was constructed in 1972 as an experiment in prefabricated housing. And after nearly 40 years, university officials have ordered an end to Baggins End.

They’ve scheduled the Domes to close July 31, saying the fiberglass structures are falling apart and repairs are too costly.

A university task force is working to develop a plan for new housing that incorporates the Domes’ communal values, but it wouldn’t be built for at least several years.

Domes residents insist that disbanding their neighborhood will wipe away decades of practical wisdom handed down from student to student.

“It’s important we stay here,” Cohen said. “If we leave, you’ve lost 40 years of knowledge.”

West Village

To the west, across a bicycle-and-pedestrian bridge over Highway 113, an entirely different kind of green neighborhood is taking shape.

West Village’s the Ramble apartments will feature luxurious student lodgings, bike-friendly pathways and the latest in energy-saving technology.

Once it’s complete, nearly 2,000 students will live in four-story apartment blocks on about 35 acres.

The apartment buildings are arranged around landscaped courtyards and a common area that will eventually include shops and offices.

The first phase of student housing at West Village is scheduled to open this fall. Private developers are building and leasing the structures for profit. Their motto: “Maximum living. Minimal impact.”

Each bedroom in the two-, three- and four-bedroom units has its own full bathroom and walk-in closet, and rents for $750 to $980 a month. The units come equipped with Bosch washers and dryers.

Crews are fitting out the buildings with power-saving lighting, high-grade insulation and window shades to dramatically reduce energy usage. Oriented toward the Delta breeze for natural cooling, the apartments will use half the energy of a typical complex, planners say. Solar panels on the rooftops will produce as much electricity as the development consumes, they say.

Bob Segar, the university’s assistant vice chancellor for campus planning, said that when the complex opens in September “it will be one of the largest zero-net-energy communities in the nation.”

There are also plans to build a “biodigester” at West Village. The device could transform tons of animal waste into energy, officials said.

A values conflict?

Residents of the Domes applaud those efforts but say the innovations at West Village represent different values.

“It’s technology vs. lifestyle,” said Cohen, who is majoring in international agricultural development.

Housing students in energy-efficient apartments is not the same as the cooperative life students share at the Domes, residents there said.

Mannie Rizvi, 19, who is studying international relations, said energy savings may alleviate some people’s guilt over consumption.

But there’s more to a sustainable lifestyle, she said.

“Beyond environmental sustainability,” she said, “there’s social sustainability.”

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