University of California San Diego

University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California

The original plan for the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) called for twelve undergraduate colleges on a campus to be designed by Robert Alexander of the Los Angeles firm of Neutra and Alexander. While Alexander's ambitious plans for the campus were not fully realized, UCSD's John Muir College, built by Robert Mosher starting in the late 1960s, preserves key elements of Alexander's original master plan and is a significant achievement of Modernist architecture. Mosher and his team sought to respect Alexander's original master planning ideas by focusing on the buildings' concrete structures, clean lines, lack of ornamentation, and structural expression. As a series of related buildings, the structures create a strong sense of community among the College's students, faculty, and staff. Grant funds are supporting a historic resources inventory and preservation plan, a comprehensive history of the college, and the development of preservation strategies for these significant architectural resources.

University of California, San Diego received a Getty grant in 2007 for $99,800 to support campus heritage planning.