The building is a rebuilt Dixon Arts Center that was badly damaged during the 1994 earthquake. It houses the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Design and Multimedia Arts, and the New White Gallery.
For the new building, the architect used an old reinforced concrete frame, but radically changed the solution to the interior space. Thanks to the use of external buttresses, which impart seismic resistance to the Brod Center, the need for stiffening walls, which previously passed through the entire building, disappeared. The main corridors were brought out onto the facade in the form of galleries protruding like long balconies, so the premises of the educational building are spacious and well-lit. In addition to workshops, auditoriums and administration rooms, there was space in the building for exhibition halls and a small conference center.
The main façade is decorated with teak screens that protect the windows of the upper floors from the sun.
Mayer's particular attention was paid to the small area in front of the building: there is a garden on terraces surrounding the open staircase of the main entrance of the Brod Center. Nearby there is a sculpture by Richard Serra "T. E. U. C. L. A." is the first open-air work of this famous sculptor in California.
