Alumni Park - The Campus Living Room

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

The green between Doheny Library and Bovard is Alumni Park, the centerpiece of the campus plan that John Parkinson drew up starting in 1919. His idea was a formal core of Romanesque buildings arranged around open lawns, and this is where you feel it most: brick and stone facades on every side, sycamore trees shading the paths, and a fountain at the center.

The land itself was a gift. In the 1930s, the USC alumni association bought the property around the new library and donated it to the university, which is how the park got its name.

For many years this lawn hosted the main commencement ceremony, when thousands of graduates in cardinal and gold filled rows of chairs under the trees. On ordinary days it is where students nap, study, toss a ball and meet friends between classes.

Find a bench, look around at the ring of buildings, and you are seeing almost exactly the view Parkinson imagined a century ago.

Getting here: From the library, step onto the lawns that stretch toward Bovard. The center of the park is about 50 meters northwest.

Did you know?: The architect who planned this campus, John Parkinson, also designed Los Angeles City Hall and, with his son Donald, the Coliseum you will see later on this walk.

Photo op: From the fountain, turn toward Doheny Library and frame its facade through the sycamore branches.

More on Wikipedia: Campus of the University of Southern California · John and Donald Parkinson

Alumni Park - The Campus Living Room

Stops on this tour