As part of a team of faculty and students, I was selected to represent Sci-Arc from the perspective of a professional architect and graduate student. With historians, professors and administrators from Claremont and Sci-Arc, we worked together to investigate the history of transformative spaces in research and education such as MIT’s Building 20, Black Mountain College, Xerox Park, the bar at the London Architectural Association and the Stanford D Lab. Using our experience, research, and expertise, we formulated a guide for the university to issue its next large RFP for a new student center to move beyond the shortcomings of previous proposals and help develop a more ambitious and self-aware proposal.