Long Beach, California, USA

Spacious and light-filled, Anna W. Ngai Alumni Center California State University by John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects bridges the institutional and the domestic and pays homage to the original Midcentury architecture.

Built on the former site of the Soroptimist House, the building was revitalized, making the alumni center one of the most beautiful and eye-catching spaces on campus.

For its revitalization, the project has been awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2023 American Architecture Awards from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

Maintained and operated by University Relations, the Anna W. Ngai Alumni Center is a venue that can be rented by the CSULB campus community for meetings, receptions, and other social events.

The Center fosters programming dedicated to social and professional networking opportunities between students and alumni.

It also serves as a repository for traditions, and a home-away-from-home for all alumni to gather.

The alumni center is more than a state-of-the-art structure built with beauty and integrity – it’s a masterfully crafted living space where connections are garnered, cultivated and celebrated.

The new building is clad in aluminum and topped with pitched roofs that stand as tribute to the California style, as well as the campus’s beloved Walter Pyramid arena located nearby.

Friedman describes the roofs as a “play off Midcentury, but in a kind of newish way looking toward the future.”

Entry to the lobby is framed by an extrusion of one of these roof forms, which is pierced by skylight apertures and functionally acts as the building’s porch, a reference to its predecessor’s residential nature.

As a contemporary touch, the edge between roof and façade creates a seamless “vertical articulation,” thanks to the continuous cladding and recessed gutters.

Apertures on the façade of this timber structure are carved out with chamfers, revealing the glazing and simulated wood siding to “give some relief to the metal…bringing in this sculptural cut or carving,” Friedman says.

Project: Anna W. Ngai Alumni Center California State University
Architects: John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects
General Contractor: Cal State Long Beach
Client: CSULB, California State University
Photographers: Benny Chan, Fotoworks