A recreation center dedicated to the wellness of students and the environment
The new Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union replaces an outdated facility and gives San Diego State University the opportunity to meet the needs of 21st century students with a project that is an exemplar of an environmentally responsible design solution. The union is expected to become the first campus-life building in the California State University system to achieve a LEED Platinum rating.
Funded entirely by student fees, the project initiated a grassroots student movement to assure the union would achieve the highest LEED rating available for sustainable design. The project team embraced the challenge, collaborating closely with students and faculty by presenting a full range of sustainable strategies and evaluating each by cost, economics, programming and planning impact and demonstrable value. The result is not only a high performance building, but also one that celebrates the historic California Mission architectural image that is the campus’ legacy. With the creation of a new campus living room for connecting, studying, eating and relaxing, the union has become a home away from home for faculty, staff and alumni and the center for the campus community.
The design of the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union has proven that the historic Mission Revival architecture of the campus is ideally suited to building high-performance, state-of-the-art facilities for future generations of SDSU students.
Robert Schultz, Associate Vice President of Operations & University Architect, SDSU