College Center - The Front Door

A stop on College of San Mateo Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

You're standing in College Center Plaza, with its fountain beside you and Building 10 rising four stories in front of you. If you only have time to step inside one building, make it this one.

College Center opened in 2011 as a one-stop home for student services. Admissions and Records, Counseling, Financial Aid, Career Services, Transfer Services and EOPS are all here, along with the Disability Resource Center and the International Student Center. The Learning Center, the campus tutoring and study support lab for every subject, is here too, as are the Bookstore and the Bayview Dining Room.

Look at how the building sits. It is turned at an angle to the older campus grid, and a long glass penthouse cuts diagonally across the top floor, hanging out over terraces below. The upper floors step back to make rooftop decks with views over the bay. Before you move on, find the glass conference room at the south end of that penthouse: it lines up with the campus entrance.

Getting here: Park in visitor Lot G beside College Center, shown on the campus map, and walk around to the fountain plaza in front of the main entrance.

Did you know?: The 140,000-square-foot building was designed to meet the LEED Silver green building standard and ended up certified LEED Gold.

Photo op: Stand on the far side of the fountain and frame the angled glass penthouse over the main entrance.

More on Wikipedia: College of San Mateo · LEED

College Center - The Front Door

Stops on this tour