About Architecture of the College of San Mateo
Hidden in plain sight, the College of San Mateo’s College Heights Campus is one of California’s architectural treasures.
Opened in 1963, the campus was designed by internationally renowned architect John Carl Warnecke as a unified composition of buildings, courtyards, arcades, terraces, and landscape overlooking the San Francisco Bay. More than sixty years later, it remains one of the country’s most intact examples of Neo-Formalist campus design.
Yet despite its architectural significance, relatively little has been written about the campus. Much of its history remains scattered across archives, planning documents, historic photographs, and institutional records.
This publication brings those stories together.
Through original photography, historical research, archival discoveries, maps, and architectural analysis, Architecture of the College of San Mateo explores the people, ideas, and design decisions that shaped one of the Bay Area’s most remarkable modernist campuses.
Whether you’re a student, alumnus, architect, preservationist, photographer, or simply someone who appreciates thoughtful design, I hope this publication helps you see the campus with fresh eyes.
What you’ll find here
Subscribers receive articles about:
The history of the College of San Mateo
John Carl Warnecke and the architects who shaped the campus
Neo-Formalist architecture and modernist design
Original photography of the campus
Historic photographs and archival discoveries
Campus planning, preservation, and restoration
Walking tours and guides for exploring the campus
New research as additional materials come to light
Some posts are brief photographic essays. Others take a deeper look at the campus’s history and architecture. Together they document a place that deserves to be better known.
About me
I’m Josh Weinberg, a San Francisco Bay Area photographer and educator with a lifelong interest in architecture, cities, and overlooked places.
My photography focuses on helping people notice what they might otherwise pass by. That same curiosity eventually led me to the College of San Mateo, where I discovered one of the nation’s finest surviving modernist campuses hiding in plain sight.
Since then, I’ve spent hundreds of hours photographing the campus, researching its history, working with archival collections, publishing articles, leading architectural tours, and documenting its buildings before they change.
This publication is the result of that ongoing work. I also write about photography at Random Capture.
Why Subscribe?
Subscribing is free and ensures every new article arrives directly in your inbox.
You’ll receive new photography, historical discoveries, architectural analysis, preservation updates, and behind-the-scenes research as this project continues to grow.
The story of the College of San Mateo is still being uncovered—and I’d be delighted to have you along for the journey.
