Place Matters

Meandering among the hodgepodge of generic buildings, utilitarian parking lots and lonely patches of grass that make up Cal State Northridge, it’s easy to understand why some quipsters dub the campus Cal State Nowhere. Established in 1956, CSUN has grown much like the community that surrounds it--a little here, a little there, but with none of the long-term planning that makes a place memorable.

For the first time, campus administrators have commissioned plans to spruce up the school and guide future construction. Financed with disaster relief money from the Northridge earthquake, the plan sets the school apart from the neighborhood with landscaping and seeks to create a more memorable campus through new walkways, color-coding of academic buildings and that classic symbol of academia, the quadrangle.

Place matters. Consider the quiet reverence evoked by a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica. Or the festive feeling of a walk down Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. Such experiences are rare at CSUN, and the entire campus community of students, teachers and others suffers for it in small, but powerful ways. How a place looks and feels affects how people feel about the place and how they behave in it. For instance, something as seemingly innocuous as a well-designed office building can increase the productivity of workers inside as much as 10%.

Place matters all the more in an academic setting, particularly at a commuter school such as CSUN. Higher education is enhanced by the feeling of belonging to a community of scholars. But creating a strong sense of community requires first creating a strong sense of place. Making CSUN the kind of place where commuting students want to linger strengthens the connections not only among students but between students and the school itself.

Sprucing up CSUN provides more than just a face lift. It gives an attitude lift as well.