The Vista is one of the original elements of the Campus, laid out as the Austin Building was being built. It served the college as a location for graduation ceremonies, banquets for the visiting State Board of Regents, and as the site for the conferring of our first honorary doctor’s degree in the 1940s. Weather was always a factor in scheduling activities on the Vista; Steen’s inauguration, scheduled for the Vista, had to be moved to the new Shelton Gym.

Steen built the first phase of the University center in 1964. It was not, however, until the expansion of the UC in the late 1960s that the original Vista walk fell victim to the expansions of the Steen years. The destruction of the Vista triggered great dismay in those interested in the traditions of the college and also to conservationists who wanted to preserve the wooded area at the entrance of the campus. This triggered a defeat for Steen’s idea to place the library out in the trees in the coming years; what became Steen Library marked a shift of the campus to the east. [At that time the Vista was paved, the entrance of the campus off North Street was changed. The street running in front of the Austin (Old Main) and Rusk Buildings, from the entrance near the Fine Arts Building to the Stone Fort, was known as “Main Street” or "Campus Drive" in the old days.]