A view up the concrete façade of the Cesar Chavez Student Center, completed in 1975. Designed by architect Paffard Keatinge-Clay with student collaboration, the building’s “iceberg” form and bold geometric planes were part of a post-1968 effort to create a gathering space that balanced openness with structural restraint. The colored panels punctuating the surface reflect the Center’s distinctive modernist aesthetic.
Context:
<p>A signature building of the San Francisco State campus is the Cesar Chavez Student Center. The unique design was one of seven proposals which students had voted on in 1966. Originally, the proposal of Canadian Architect Moshe Safdie had won the student vote. The administration dismissed his design following the 1968 Student Strikes and welcomed back the other finalists to design a student center that could be “a place that facilitated student gathering but not student uprising," described in architect Paffard Keatinge-Clay’s biography. The final design was created by Paffard Keatinge-Clay in collaboration with student input through the form of a class. Together they designed an “iceberg” building with two pyramids. “The pyramid of silence is aligned with the axis of the north star, and faces northeast for “quiet, introspective activities; while the second pyramid faces west” and is intended for more “boisterous, public activities." The building was completed in 1975.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Credits:</strong> Some descriptions were developed with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model by OpenAI.</p>
