Campus of The University of Southern California - Overview

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 architect William 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 the TIME/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 the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. (That the university emerged from the riots completely unscathed is all the more remarkable in light of the complete destruction of several strip malls in the area, including one just across Vermont Avenue from the campus' western entrance). The ZIP 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 — $120 million from Ambassador Walter Annenberg to create the Annenberg Center for Communication and a later Annenberg gift of $100 million for the USC Annenberg School for Communication; $112.5 million from Alfred Mann to establish the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering; $110 million from the W. M. Keck Foundation for USC's School of Medicine; and most recently, $175 million from George Lucas to the USC School of Cinema-Television, now renamed USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Major new facilities opened with the infusion of new money including the:

• The USC Medical Center.
• The Leavey Library.
• The USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center expansion.
• The Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute.
• The International Residential College at Parkside.
• The Marshall School of Business Popovich Hall.
• The Galen Center - home to USC Basketball and USC Volleyball.
• The School of Cinematic Arts New Compound.
• The University Gateway Student Housing and Retail Center.
• The USC Ronald Tutor Campus Center and Trojan Plaza.

Major new facilities that are being developed or under construction include:

• The New USC Football Complex, Plaza, and Gardens.
• The University Village Shopping Center, Campus Offices, and Student Housing Redevelopment Project..
• The USC 2030 Master Plan Home