View of the Old Library from the Cesar Chavez Student Center
About This Item
A view of the original San Francisco State library building as seen from the sculptural concrete forms of the newly completed Cesar Chavez Student Center. The Center’s angular “iceberg” architecture—designed with student input and finished in 1975—frames the older library, which first opened in 1954 and was later renamed the J. Paul Leonard Library in 1976. The contrast between the two structures captures a moment of transition in the campus landscape, as new forms rose beside the familiar anchors of earlier decades.
- Identifier
- TP-ATA-0627
- Context
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.
The Library first opened its doors in 1954. In 1976, the San Francisco State Library was renamed the J. Paul Leonard Library after the University’s fourth president. Leonard played a major role in expanding the university by opening the 19th and Holloway campus.Credits: Some descriptions were developed with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model by OpenAI.
- Geographic Coverage
- San Francisco, CA
- Type
- Still Image
- Format
- 35mm Slide
- Source
- San Francisco State University Archives
- Rights
- Public
- Views
- 496