California State University Dominguez Hills Master Planning / Site Selection Collection

California State University Dominguez Hills was established by the legislature of the state of California in 1960 as a branch of the California State College system to serve southwest Los Angeles. Its first name, South Bay State College, was chosen to reflect that orientation. Its first president, Leo F. Cain, was appointed in January, 1962, and consulting architect and the college planning staff were appointed later that year.

The process of selecting a site took over five years. Suggestions for possible sites were solicited and the responses were such that, at one time or another, over forty possible sites were considered. The major early contenders for the college were the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the City of Torrance, and the Fox Hills area near Culver City. Disputes over the relative merits and drawbacks of these and other sites involved local city councils, businessmen, citizens' groups, the State College Trustees, local State Senators and the college's planning staffs. Cities and civic groups filed resolutions on behalf of some site (and against other sites), and there were vigorous letter-writing campaigns trying to sway officials who would be making the decision. Even before the final decision was made, the college, now named California State College at Palos Verdes, opened to a limited number of students in rented facilities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the fall of 1965. Soon thereafter, Dominguez Hills, a relatively new contender, was selected as the permanent campus site.

The planning of the curriculum and physical facilities for what would become California State University Dominguez Hills mirrored the struggle to find a permanent campus. Planning for both began in 1962 with the appointment of the college planning staff and campus architect. Background sources were collected, data gathered, consultants brought in, and reports compiled in preparation for devising an academic (or curriculum) master plan and for determining the educational specifications for physical facilities.

Academic master planning took several years. Numerous versions and revisions of the plan appeared between 1962 and the opening of the college in the fall of 1965. The strong interest of the planning staff in experimental and innovative instruction and curriculum culminated in the diversified major and small college proposals. The facilities master planning staff, which included A. Quincy Jones, the consulting architect, devised educational specifications for college buildings and architectural master plans, one for a Palos Verdes campus in 1964 and another for the Dominguez Hills campus in 1967.

Planning for both academic and physical plant development was complicated by the delay in selecting a permanent site for the campus. With the decision to locate the permanent campus on the Dominguez Hills site in Carson, the college decided to move the temporary campus closer to the site of the permanent campus. After investigating a number of possible rental facilities, the campus was moved to a building leased from the Watt Construction Co. (the Watt Campus) across the street from the permanent site. Gradually, as buildings were completed on the permanent site, operations transferred to the permanent site. This transfer was completed by fall 1972.