Campus Center - The Hilltop Crossroads

A stop on Foothill College Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

You have reached the heart of student life. The Campus Center, buildings 2000 through 2300, holds the Welcome Center, Student Affairs and student government, Health Services, the Mental Health Wellness Center, campus police, the Hilltop Grill dining hall and the bookstore. The open space in front of you is Cesar Chavez Plaza.

This hilltop is where the campus design comes into focus. Architect Ernest J. Kump, working with Masten and Hurd, and landscape architects Hideo Sasaki and Peter Walker planned Foothill as one connected complex: low buildings with redwood exteriors and heavy wooden beams on concrete piers, wood shake roofs, and courtyards joined by walkways, with cars kept below in parking lots around the edges. The design won an American Institute of Architects Honor Award in 1962, and in 1980 the AIA praised it again for design that had stood the test of time.

The original 1961 Campus Center was later replaced with a new building, but it still sits at the crossroads of campus.

Getting here: From the theatre, follow the walkway north past building 1500 and up to the plaza in front of the Campus Center.

Did you know?: In 1962, Time magazine described Foothill as a mountaintop among the nation's junior colleges.

Photo op: From Cesar Chavez Plaza, look east along the footbridge toward the athletics hilltop.

More on Wikipedia: Ernest J. Kump · Hideo Sasaki · Peter Walker

Campus Center - The Hilltop Crossroads

Stops on this tour