The Right Thing to Do

Alumnus Ried Bridges Gives $1.8 Million to Law School

Along the Boulevard

Building for the Future

SOME HIGHLIGHTS of the past summer:

• Construction began on two major classroom buildings: the $18.6 million, 55,000-square-foot Popovich Hall, to house the graduate programs of the USC Marshall School of Business, and the $10.6 million, 34,000-square-foot Ralph and Goldy Lewis Hall, the home of the new School of Policy, Planning, and Development.
• Construction began on the Galen Athletic Center and Jess T. Hill Weight Room Addition next to Heritage Hall. When the addition is finished this winter, student athletes will have their own dining hall, which will also be available to other students, faculty and staff. An extension of the football practice field and a new soccer field were also finished.
• Renovations and remodelings were completed – or nearly completed – on the Annenberg School for Communcation’s east wing, Bloom Walk, Carl’s Jr., a half-dozen classrooms, the Allan Hancock Auditorium (now the Alfred Newman Recital Hall), the Student Union, student housing and Leavey Library.
• Exposition Boulevard and Exposition Park were spruced up, with vibrant new landscaping for the street’s formerly barren median strip and a new playground at Exposition Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.

IN ADDITION, planning has begun on two major projects: the Engineering Academic Center and a new, main entrance to campus on Exposition Boulevard. The engineering center, to be located west of Seaver Science Center where the engineering barracks are now, is proposed as an 84,000-square-foot building to house student services, student organizations and state-of-the-art classrooms for engineering undergraduates.
The new entrance on Exposition Boulevard, designed to welcome visitors and give USC a heightened presence from the street, will guide motorists past a fountain and down a roadway flanked by arched brick loggias and the new classroom buildings, Popovich and Lewis halls. At the head of the entrance, visitors will see elegantly restored Widney Alumni House, the oldest university building in Southern California, whose move in August 1997 to its current site kicked off the latest round of construction.
In the coming years, two more major projects are expected to break ground: the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering, funded by a $100 million donation from the USC trustee and biomedical entrepreneur, and the Katherine B. Loker Track and Field Stadium. In June, Loker donated $2 million to the athletic department to build a 3,000-seat stadium on Cromwell Field.
“With these new buildings and projects, USC will be maintaining the architectural grace, elegance and integrity of a distinguished past while meeting the needs of the 21st century,” said President Steven B. Sample. “USC’s steady physical growth continues to reflect its progress as a top national university.”