Mondavis Donate $35 Mil for UC Wine Institute

DAVIS, CA-A $35 million donation from Bay Area winemakers Robert and Margrit Mondavi will be used to build a new wine and food science institute, say University of California at Davis officials.

UC Davis says that $25 million of the funds will be combined with campus funds and additional contributions to construct the university’s state-of-the-art research and teaching facility to house its viticulture, enology and food science departments in one area.

The institute will include 75,000 sf of classrooms, laboratories, offices and meeting rooms, a 13,000 sf food-processing plant, and a 36,000 sf building for a new campus teaching and research facility. The facility will be built on Old Davis Road, near the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the year 2004.

The remaining $10 million will go toward the development of a new Center for Performing Arts, which is scheduled to open next fall. The university says that this donation is the single most generous donation to be made in the history of the University of California system.