CCSF’s $190 million Performing Arts and Education Center Set to Transform Campus and Showcase Diego Rivera Mural

By Diane Ayerdi
Excitement is building at City College as the $190 million, long-anticipated Diego Rivera Theater moves closer to becoming a reality.
The state-of-the-art, 77,000-square-foot, three-story Performing Arts and Education Center, designed by LMN Architects and TEF Design, will feature three main performance venues: a 600-seat performance hall, a 150-seat studio theater, and a 100-seat recital hall, along with various spaces for performing, practicing, teaching and studying. These facilities will support City College’s music and theater art departments by offering contemporary classrooms and practice spaces. It will be between the Multi-Use Building and the Steam Center on Frida Kahlo Way.
At the heart of the new Performing Arts and Education Center, or PAEC, will be the Diego Rivera Theater, which will house the iconic “Pan-American Unity” mural by Diego Rivera. The mural will be displayed in the lobby with a glass wall, making it visible to both the center’s visitors and the pedestrians outside. “The uniqueness of the building will be the installation and display of the mural,” said Alberto Vasquez, associate vice chancellor of City College’s facilities department.
Chair of the Music and Theater Arts Department Madeline Mueller has long been a strong advocate for the PAEC and Diego Rivera Theater and feels the project is long overdue. “The PAEC was always in the works and always kind of put off a bit,” she said. “Performing arts students need an auditorium because it’s part of what they have to have to complete their programs.”
Mueller added: “You have to have that kind of facility to train in those disciplines. So in that sense, City College has been an incomplete campus all of these years because it hasn’t had that facility for the students.”

The center will also be available for public use. “It is planned for public use, but obviously there will have to be some coordination in events of request. We have to make sure there is adequate staffing to support the services,” Vasquez said.
“All of the funds have been secured for the PAEC,” Vasquez said. The project is completely funded by taxpayer money. “The main source of funding came from the 2020 Proposition A bond and the remaining funds came from bond measures that were previously passed in 2001 and 2005,” he added. The construction plans are currently awaiting the Division of the State Architecture’s approval.
Breaking ground is tentatively scheduled for the Spring 2025.
“I’m excited to be able to see this move forward and am looking forward to breaking ground on it,” President of City College’s Board of Trustees Alan Wong said. “This will offer the west side of San Francisco and the City College community access to the arts and increase the opportunities for people from many different backgrounds to be able to participate, to be able to enjoy the arts.”
“There will be a 30- to 32-month window for construction,” said Vasquez. The goal of the completion date is for the end of 2027.
“The music and theatre arts departments plan a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony as soon as the groundbreaking starts, and an even bigger one for the opening,” Mueller said.
The new center will provide the campus with a place for future musicians to perfect their artistic craft in a professional setting that will better prepare them for careers in the arts. It will offer a creative environment that will inspire many talented students in the arts to grow while allowing the community to enjoy and access many different types of performances.
“I hear the enthusiasm, interest, and passion for this project from a lot of folks,” said Jasmine Kaw, senior project manager for the City College facilities department. “I’m excited to see it break ground. It’s going to be a huge asset for the City College community and the larger neighborhood as well. The mural is an internationally known historic landmark and that now is going to be predominantly displayed, and that itself will be a huge attraction.”
With the groundbreaking of the PAEC and Diego Rivera Theater on the horizon, enthusiasm is growing at City College. This state-of-the-art facility will equip students with the necessary resources to thrive in the performing arts.
“We use the words ‘state of the art’ to describe something at the leading edge of new ideas in all areas of progress,” said Mueller. “The College hired the best architecture team including the best acousticians to make sure that we have the most 21st Century performing arts complex possible. San Francisco is considered perhaps the most outstanding cities of the arts in the world. City College must have the facilities for its students and community that reflect that high standard and reputation.”