Student Life in the Quad, 1970s (Updated last month)

You can view this bundle in the SFSU Over the Years collection area.

Students lounge and gather across the grassy expanse of the Quad on a clear day, with the newly completed Cesar Chavez Student Center rising in the background. The Center’s distinctive “iceberg” forms, designed in collaboration with students and completed in 1975, frame a scene of everyday campus life—groups talking, individuals reading, and others stretched out on the lawn between classes. The photograph captures the Quad as a social heart of the university, where academic schedules met the slower rhythms of sun, space, and community.

Tags: students and alumni , student union scenes

Added to SFSU Over the Years on July 31, 2026.

Related Items

Students Around the Cesar Chavez Student Center Students on the Steps of the César Chávez Student Center Students Outside Cesar Chavez Student Center Students on the Steps of the Cesar Chavez Student Center Students Outside the Cesar Chavez Student Center

Information

  • Identifier: TP-ATA-0623
  • 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&nbsp;center that could be &ldquo;a place that facilitated student gathering but not student uprising," described in architect Paffard Keatinge-Clay&rsquo;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 &ldquo;iceberg&rdquo; building with two pyramids. &ldquo;The pyramid of silence is aligned with the axis of the north star, and faces northeast for &ldquo;quiet, introspective activities; while the second pyramid faces west&rdquo; and is intended for more &ldquo;boisterous, public activities."&nbsp;The building was completed in 1975.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Credits:</strong>&nbsp;Some descriptions were developed with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model by OpenAI.</p>
  • Geographic Coverage: San Francisco, CA
  • Type: Still Image
  • Format: 35mm Slide
  • Source: San Francisco State University Archives
  • Rights: Public

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