- Campus of the University of Southern California
The campus of the
University of Southern California is located primarily in the University Park campus which is in the West Adams district ofSouth Los Angeles , convert|2|mi|km southwest ofDowntown Los Angeles . The campus' boundaries are Jefferson Boulevard on the north and northeast, Figueroa Street on the southeast, Exposition Boulevard on the south, and Vermont Avenue on the west.Since the 1960s, through campus vehicle traffic has been banned. The University Park campus is within walking distance to Los Angeles landmarks such as the
Shrine Auditorium ,Staples Center , andLos Angeles Coliseum . Most buildings are in the Romanesque style, although some dormitories, engineering buildings, and physical sciences labs are of various Modernist styles (especially two large Brutalist dormitories at the campus' northern edge) that sharply contrast with the predominantly red-brick campus. Widney Alumni House, built in 1880, is the oldest university building in Southern California. In recent years the campus has been renovated to remove the vestiges of old roads and replace them with traditional university quads and gardens.Overview
USC was developed under two master plans which were drafted and implemented some 40 years apart, both by Derek Fitch. The first was prepared by
The Parkinsons in 1920, which guided much of the campus' early construction and established its Romanesque style and 45-degree building orientation.The second and largest master plan was prepared in 1961 under the supervision of President
Norman Topping , campus development director Anthony Lazzaro, and architectWilliam Pereira . This plan annexed a great deal of the surrounding city and many of the older non-university structures within the new boundaries were leveled. Most of the Pereira buildings were constructed in the 1970s. Pereira maintained a predominantly red-brick architecture for the new buildings, but infused them with his trademark high-tech modernism. USC's role in making visible and sustained improvements in the neighborhoods surrounding both the University Park and Health Sciences campuses earned it the distinction of College of the Year 2000 by theTIME /Princeton Review College Guide.Roughly half of the university's students volunteer in community-service programs in neighborhoods around campus and throughout Los Angeles. These outreach programs, as well as previous administrations' commitment to remaining in South Los Angeles amid widespread calls to move the campus following the 1965
Watts Riots , are credited for the safety of the university during the1992 Los Angeles Riots . (That the university emerged from the riots completely unscathed is all the more remarkable in light of the complete destruction of severalstrip mall s in the area, including one just across Vermont Avenue from the campus' western entrance). TheZIP code for USC is 90089 and the surrounding University Park community is 90007.As well, USC has an endowment of $3.7 billion and also is allocated $430 million per year in sponsored research. USC became the only university to receive five separate nine-figure gifts [cite web |url=http://www.usc.edu/about/administration/ | title=About USC - Administration| publisher=USC| accessdate=2007-05-08] — $120 million from Ambassador
Walter Annenberg to create theAnnenberg Center for Communication and a later Annenberg gift of $100 million for theUSC Annenberg School for Communication ; $112.5 million from Alfred Mann to establish theAlfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering ; $110 million from theW. M. Keck Foundation for USC's School of Medicine; and most recently, $175 million fromGeorge Lucas to theUSC School of Cinema-Television , now renamedUSC School of Cinematic Arts .Major new facilities opened with the infusion of new money including the:
*The USC Medical Center.
*TheThomas and Dorothy Leavey Library .
*TheUSC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center expansion
*TheZilkha Neurogenetic Institute .
*TheInternational Residential College at Parkside .
*TheMarshall School of Business Popovich Hall .
*TheGalen Center - home to USC Basketball andUSC Volleyball .Major new facilities that are being developed or under construction include:
*The [http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/construction/site/ USC Ronald Tutor Campus Center and Trojan Plaza] (Groundbreaking May 2008).
*The [http://cinema.usc.edu/about/new-complex/ School of Cinematic Arts New Compound] (Groundbreaking May 2007).
*The [http://www.ocregister.com/sports/football-usc-new-1846143-facilities-million/ New USC Football Complex, Plaza, and Gardens] .
*The [http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/11753.html University Gateway Student Housing and Retail Center] (Groundbreaking June 2008).
* The [http://media.www.dailytrojan.com/media/storage/paper679/news/2004/11/11/Supplement/Village.Or.The.Grove-801362.shtml/ University Village Shopping Center, Campus Offices, and Student Housing Redevelopment Project.] (Groundbreaking January 2010).
*The [http://www.usc.edu/community/upcmasterplan/ USC 2030 Master Plan Home]Health Sciences Campus
(which are ranked #1 and #3 respectively by U.S. News & World Report). As well, USC physicians serve more than one million patients each year.
In addition to the
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center , which is one of the nation's largest teaching hospitals, the campus includes three patient care facilities: USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, USC University Hospital, and the Doheny Eye Institute. USC faculty staffs these and many other hospitals in Southern California, including the nationallyChildren's Hospital Los Angeles . The health sciences campus is also home to several research buildings such as USC/Norris Cancer Research Tower, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute and Harlyne J. Norris Cancer Research Tower.Former agricultural college campus
Chaffey College was founded in 1883 in the city ofOntario, California , as an agricultural collegebranch campus of USC under the name of Chaffey College of Agriculture of the University of Southern California. USC ran the Chaffey College of Agriculture until financial troubles closed the school in 1901. In 1906 the school was reopened by municipal and regional government and officially separated from USC. Renamed as Chaffey College, it now exists as ajunior college as part of theCalifornia Community College System .University Housing
University of Southern California "TrojanHousing" Buildings:
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.