The campus spans across 84 buildings, and is located from the Pacific Ocean. CSULB is located at 1250 Bellflower Boulevard. It is bounded by East 7th Street to the south, East Atherton Street to the north, Bellflower Boulevard to the west, and Palo Verde Avenue to the east.
Architecture The architecture of the campus is mainly of the
International style (designed primarily by architect
Edward Killingsworth). It is minimalist. It has earned design awards and awards from gardening societies. The integration of landscaping and architecture is apparent at the school's theater complex, where a dense grove of
ficus trees is planted in such a way that it forms a continuation of the pillar-supported canopy at the theater's entrance. The university's registration offices are located in the open courtyard of Brotman Hall, which is "roofed" by a similar jungle-like canopy.
Campus landmarks , the university's most prominent sporting complex and most recognizable landmark. The University Student Union (USU) building is located at the center of campus. The three-story glass building occupies roughly , housing numerous offices, and offering more casual attractions, including a study lounge, a ballroom, a food court, a bowling alley, an arcade, and a movie theater. As of Fall 2025, the USU is undergoing major renovations as part of the largest and most costly building project in CSU history. The Rec and Wellness Center is an extensive all-purpose athletic center covering about on North Campus. It was completed in 2010. It includes facilities for fitness programs and aerobics classes, courts for volleyball, basketball, badminton, rock climbing walls, an indoor track, a student lounge, and much more. The center is funded and managed by CSULB's Associated Students, Incorporated (ASI). Beach basketball and volleyball games are played in the iconic, eighteen-story
LBS Financial Credit Union Credit Union Pyramid (formerly known as the Walter Pyramid and the Long Beach Pyramid) located on north campus. The Pyramid is a sporting complex that can accommodate over 5,000 fans, including temporary seating and standing room. Two sections of interior stands are fitted with large
hydraulic lifts that can lift the seating elements 45 degrees into the air, creating room for five volleyball courts or three basketball courts. The Pyramid is home to the
Southern California Summer Pro League, a noted showcase for current and prospective NBA basketball players. The University Art Museum's permanent collection contains primarily abstract expressionist paintings, works on paper, and an outdoor sculpture garden that began in 1966. The UAM was the first accredited museum in the
CSU system. In addition, the museum's Gordon F. Hampton collection is housed at the
Downtown Los Angeles law offices of Sheppard Mullin. The campus is also home to the
Carpenter Performing Arts Center, a 1,074-seat theater named after CSULB alumni
Richard and Karen Carpenter. The
Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden is an artistic retreat of solitude and beauty. Among its many picturesque attractions, the Garden features a large pond populated with
koi.
Puvungna is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. The campus is built on the ancient
Tongva village and burial site known as
Puvungna ("the place of the gathering" or "in the ball"), which is a sacred site for the Tongva and
Acjachemen. In 1974, the now twenty-two acre site was added to the
National Register of Historic Places after the site was uncovered in the development of the nearby
Japanese Garden. In 2019, the university dumped dirt and debris onto the site and drove heavy equipment over the ground in the construction of a new student housing development. This was received negatively by the
Tongva and
Acjachemen, who organized in an attempt to preserve the site from future damage. The site remains a natural area with a few trees.
Campus sustainability The university, in its push to support climate sustainability, installed solar panels on the Brotman Hall building and the Facilities Management canopy parking in 2007. The Environmental Science & Policy Club (ES&P Club) has brought support to environmental awareness and sustainability through club activities, such as coastal clean-ups, hikes, plant-restoration project, tabling, conferences, guest speakers, & Kaleidoscope. In 2006, the ES&P Club supported the installation of waterless urinals in the university's men's restrooms. The ES&P Club hosts an annual Earth Week celebration each April, including documentary screenings, discussions, and speaker series. In addition, there has been a push in recent years to revive the organic gardens on campus, culminating in 2015 with the launch of the Grow Beach University Gardens, a student-led ASI sub-group that promotes organic gardening and sustainable agriculture on campus. The new garden boxes are part of a campus-wide effort to provide a natural, organic, and convenient garden right on campus for student and faculty use. The university "has a comprehensive energy management program incorporating real-time metering and energy-saving technologies such as the EnergySaver, which provides a more sophisticated alternative to turning off the lights by automatically varying the voltage to the ballasted fixtures and reducing the power consumed, while maintaining appropriate lighting levels."
Desert Studies Center The
Desert Studies Center is a field station of the California State University located in
Zzyzx, California in the
Mojave Desert. The purpose of the center is to provide opportunities to conduct research, receive instruction and experience the Mojave Desert environment. It is operated by the California Desert Studies Consortium, a
consortium of 7 CSU campuses:
Fullerton,
Cal Poly Pomona,
Long Beach,
San Bernardino,
Northridge,
Dominguez Hills and
Los Angeles. ==Academics==